Safe, reliable, affordable electricity is the promise cooperatives deliver to their members every day. To accomplish this, many links in the power supply chain must work in harmony to achieve a stable electric system, far before electricity is distributed to members’ homes, farms and businesses.
One piece of the grid puzzle is a regional transmission organization or RTO.
Through an RTO, market participants pool their generation and transmission resources, then the RTO determines how to serve the collective load at the lowest cost.
Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) are the two RTOs with a footprint in North Dakota. Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck, is a member of SPP, while Minnkota Power Cooperative, Grand Forks, is a member of MISO. RTOs act as a balancing authority for member systems. They do not own generation or transmission assets, nor directly serve the load, but they are responsible for balancing supply and demand.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission through a 1999 order encouraged the voluntary formation of RTOs to administer the transmission grid on a regional basis throughout North America.
Similar to the role air traffic control plays in the airline industry, ensuring planes and passengers get safely from point A to point B, RTOs monitor and direct the flow of power, on and off the bulk power grid, to ensure electricity gets from where it’s made to where it’s needed.
Another benefit of an RTO is direct access to lower-cost power.
Through the RTO, everyone brings all their generation and transmission assets to the table, then the RTO essentially runs the computer program and solves the equation of how to serve the collective load reliably at the lowest cost.
Wind and solar power are generally cheapest, for example, when abundant. But they are also less reliable, so when extreme winter weather arrives, dispatchable resources such as coal and natural gas become critical.
That’s why an RTO also factors in reliability when determining how to serve the load. RTOs assign capacity values to resources, so generators are credited for reliability.
So, the next time you charge your cellphone or light your home, consider the extensive network standing behind you to provide reliable, low-cost electricity every day.