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INTERCONNECTED POWER OPERATIONS JULY 1994 Background:
Most of the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico are operated as two large integrated power systems. Through a series of interconnections and operating agreements, this interconnected operation provides a high degree of reliability, increased efficiency, and reduced cost to the consumer.
Discussion:
The North American power system is basically divided into an eastern system and a western system. The systems are divided along the eastern boundaries of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the western system, the largest generation region is in the northwest along the Columbia River and the largest load regions are in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. Common characteristics break the western system into five regions; the northwest (Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho), Rocky Mountain (Wyoming and Colorado), southwest (Arizona and New Mexico), Utah, and California.
All of these regions are interconnected and within each of these five regions, there are load control areas, which provide the coordination of the generation and transmission facilities in that region. In Colorado, there are three load control areas. Public Service Company of Colorado operates a load control center in Denver, which controls the facilities in the Denver-Metro area as well as southeastern Colorado and a narrow corridor along I-70 to Grand Junction. The Western Area Power Administration-Loveland Area Office maintains a control center, which controls the facilities in northeastern Colorado and the eastern two-thirds of Wyoming. The Western Area Power Administration-Montrose control center controls the facilities in western Colorado and Glen Canyon Dam hydro facility and the transmission lines in northern Arizona. Although individual utilities own facilities in a control area, the moment-to-moment operation of the interconnected facilities is coordinated through the appropriate load control center.
Source: Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities (CAMU)
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