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52-596: The Celilo Converter Station , built in 1970 and owned and operated by the Bonneville Power Administration , is the northern terminus of the Pacific DC Intertie , near The Dalles , Oregon , in the United States . The Celilo Converter Station was originally configured with six groups of six-pulse mercury arc valves with a blocking voltage of 133 kV each (for a total of ±400 kV) and

104-497: A controlled flow of energy while also functionally isolating the independent AC frequencies of each side. The benefits of synchronous zones include pooling of generation, resulting in lower generation costs; pooling of load, resulting in significant equalizing effects; common provisioning of reserves, resulting in cheaper primary and secondary reserve power costs; opening of the market, resulting in possibility of long-term contracts and short term power exchanges; and mutual assistance in

156-465: A different region to ensure continuing, reliable power and diversify their loads. Interconnection also allows regions to have access to cheap bulk energy by receiving power from different sources. For example, one region may be producing cheap hydro power during high water seasons, but in low water seasons, another area may be producing cheaper power through wind, allowing both regions to access cheaper energy sources from one another during different times of

208-435: A large scale within an electrical power grid . Electrical energy is stored during times when electricity is plentiful and inexpensive (especially from intermittent power sources such as renewable electricity from wind power , tidal power and solar power ) or when demand is low, and later power is generated when demand is high, and electricity prices tend to be higher. As of 2020 , the largest form of grid energy storage

260-428: A local power grid, it will cause safety issue like burning out. Grids are designed to supply electricity to their customers at largely constant voltages. This has to be achieved with varying demand, variable reactive loads, and even nonlinear loads, with electricity provided by generators and distribution and transmission equipment that are not perfectly reliable. Often grids use tap changers on transformers near to

312-521: A loss of generation capacity for customers, or excess demand. This will often cause the frequency to reduce, and the remaining generators will react and together attempt to stabilize above the minimum. If that is not possible then a number of scenarios can occur. A large failure in one part of the grid — unless quickly compensated for — can cause current to re-route itself to flow from the remaining generators to consumers over transmission lines of insufficient capacity, causing further failures. One downside to

364-471: A lower voltage distribution network and distributed generators. Microgrids may not only be more resilient, but may be cheaper to implement in isolated areas. A design goal is that a local area produces all of the energy it uses. Example implementations include: A wide area synchronous grid , also known as an "interconnection" in North America, directly connects many generators delivering AC power with

416-418: A maximum current of 2,000  amperes . There was also a DC test facility for testing high voltage equipment nearby (now abandoned, soon to be demolished). At the end of the 1960s, a test transmission line for 1,333 kV was erected at 45°28′58″N 120°48′51″W  /  45.482792°N 120.814097°W  / 45.482792; -120.814097  ( 1333 kV DC Line ) . The facility

468-563: A regional scale or greater that operates at a synchronized frequency and is electrically tied together during normal system conditions. These are also known as synchronous zones, the largest of which is the synchronous grid of Continental Europe (ENTSO-E) with 667  gigawatts (GW) of generation, and the widest region served being that of the IPS/UPS system serving countries of the former Soviet Union. Synchronous grids with ample capacity facilitate electricity market trading across wide areas. In

520-456: A security risk. Particular concerns relate to the more complex computer systems needed to manage grids. A microgrid is a local grid that is usually part of the regional wide-area synchronous grid but which can disconnect and operate autonomously. It might do this in times when the main grid is affected by outages. This is known as islanding , and it might run indefinitely on its own resources. Compared to larger grids, microgrids typically use

572-720: A widely connected grid is thus the possibility of cascading failure and widespread power outage . A central authority is usually designated to facilitate communication and develop protocols to maintain a stable grid. For example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation gained binding powers in the United States in 2006, and has advisory powers in the applicable parts of Canada and Mexico. The U.S. government has also designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors , where it believes transmission bottlenecks have developed. A brownout

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624-524: Is three-phase . Three phase, compared to single phase, can deliver much more power for a given amount of wire, since the neutral and ground wires are shared. Further, three-phase generators and motors are more efficient than their single-phase counterparts. However, for conventional conductors one of the main losses are resistive losses which are a square law on current, and depend on distance. High voltage AC transmission lines can lose 1-4% per hundred miles. However, high-voltage direct current can have half

676-675: Is 3.49 cents per kilowatt-hour; the BPA generated $ 4.72 billion in operating revenue in 2022. BPA now markets the electricity from thirty-one federal hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries, as well as from the Columbia Generating Station , a nuclear plant located on the Hanford Site in eastern Washington. BPA has more than 15,000 circuit miles (24,140 circuit km) of electrical lines and 261 substations in

728-885: Is a wide-area transmission network that is intended to make possible the trade of high volumes of electricity across great distances. It is sometimes also referred to as a mega grid . Super grids can support a global energy transition by smoothing local fluctuations of wind energy and solar energy . In this context they are considered as a key technology to mitigate global warming . Super grids typically use High-voltage direct current (HVDC) to transmit electricity long distances. The latest generation of HVDC power lines can transmit energy with losses of only 1.6% per 1000 km. Electric utilities between regions are many times interconnected for improved economy and reliability. Electrical interconnectors allow for economies of scale, allowing energy to be purchased from large, efficient sources. Utilities can draw power from generator reserves from

780-498: Is an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system. Intentional brownouts are used for load reduction in an emergency. The reduction lasts for minutes or hours, as opposed to short-term voltage sag (or dip). The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by incandescent lighting when the voltage sags. A voltage reduction may be an effect of disruption of an electrical grid, or may occasionally be imposed in an effort to reduce load and prevent

832-422: Is dammed hydroelectricity , with both conventional hydroelectric generation as well as pumped storage hydroelectricity . Developments in battery storage have enabled commercially viable projects to store energy during peak production and release during peak demand, and for use when production unexpectedly falls giving time for slower responding resources to be brought online. Two alternatives to grid storage are

884-417: Is simply rerouted while repairs are done. Because the power is often generated far from where it is consumed, the transmission system can cover great distances. For a given amount of power, transmission efficiency is greater at higher voltages and lower currents. Therefore, voltages are stepped up at the generating station, and stepped down at local substations for distribution to customers. Most transmission

936-411: Is stored in the immediate short term by the rotational kinetic energy of the generators. Although the speed is kept largely constant, small deviations from the nominal system frequency are very important in regulating individual generators and are used as a way of assessing the equilibrium of the grid as a whole. When the grid is lightly loaded the grid frequency runs above the nominal frequency, and this

988-408: Is taken as an indication by Automatic Generation Control systems across the network that generators should reduce their output. Conversely, when the grid is heavily loaded, the frequency naturally slows, and governors adjust their generators so that more power is output ( droop speed control ). When generators have identical droop speed control settings it ensures that multiple parallel generators with

1040-519: Is the designated marketer for 31 hydroelectric dams and the Columbia Generating Station a nuclear power plant at the Hanford Site . The dams are owned and operated by either the Army Corps of Engineers (21 dams) or the Bureau of Reclamation (10 dams), and have a maximum combined capacity of 22 GW. The Bonneville Project, named for the then-new Bonneville Dam , was established by an act of Congress that

1092-566: Is the final stage in the delivery of power; it carries electricity from the transmission system to individual consumers. Substations connect to the transmission system and lower the transmission voltage to medium voltage ranging between 2  kV and 35 kV . But the voltage levels varies very much between different countries, in Sweden medium voltage are normally 10  kV between 20 kV . Primary distribution lines carry this medium voltage power to distribution transformers located near

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1144-584: Is the maximum power output on a grid that is immediately available over a given time period, and is a far more useful figure. Most grid codes specify that the load is shared between the generators in merit order according to their marginal cost (i.e. cheapest first) and sometimes their environmental impact. Thus cheap electricity providers tend to be run flat out almost all the time, and the more expensive producers are only run when necessary. Failures are usually associated with generators or power transmission lines tripping circuit breakers due to faults leading to

1196-405: Is the process of generating electric power at power stations . This is done ultimately from sources of primary energy typically with electromechanical generators driven by heat engines from fossil , nuclear , and geothermal sources, or driven by the kinetic energy of water or wind. Other power sources are photovoltaics driven by solar insolation, and grid batteries . The sum of

1248-946: The Celilo Converter Station near The Dalles, Oregon to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) grid 800 miles (1,300 km) away at the Sylmar Converter Station in Los Angeles . The Northern Intertie crosses the Canada–US border in two locations at Blaine, Washington and Nelway, British Columbia and connects to two BC Hydro AC 500 kV lines and several lower voltage lines. Because BPA owns and operates transmission equipment and locations, its workers perform its own vegetation management . BPA uses helicopters to sling load maintenance workers inspecting and repairing power lines. The BPA

1300-516: The Pacific Northwest and controls approximately 75 percent of the high-voltage (230 kV and higher) transmission capacity in the region. 87 percent of the agency's sustained peak capacity (11,680 MW) is generated from hydroelectricity. BPA also maintains connection lines with other power grids . It connects to the California high-voltage transmission system by Path 66 , which consists of

1352-624: The Pacific Northwest . BPA was created by an act of Congress in 1937 to market electric power from the Bonneville Dam located on the Columbia River and to construct facilities necessary to transmit that power. Congress has since designated Bonneville to be the marketing agent for power from all of the federally owned hydroelectric projects in the Pacific Northwest. Bonneville is one of four regional Federal power marketing agencies within

1404-576: The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to regulate flow of water in the Columbia River and to carry out environmental projects such as salmon restoration. Although BPA is part of the DOE, it is self-funded and covers its costs by selling its products and services at cost. The BPA provides about 28% of the electricity used in the region. BPA transmits and sells wholesale electricity in eight western states: Washington , Oregon , Idaho , Montana , Wyoming , Utah , Nevada , and California . Its minimum wholesale rate

1456-452: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The power generated on BPA's grid is sold to public utilities, private utilities, and industry on the grid. The excess is sold to other grids in Canada , California and other regions. Because BPA is a public entity, it does not make a profit on power sales or from providing transmission services. BPA also coordinates with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and

1508-800: The BPA Library discovered a collection of old films made by the agency and began posting digital versions of them on the agency's website. Included in the collection is the award-winning documentary "River of Power" which covers the Agency's history from its beginning to the present. The BPA gives its name to the BPA Trail in Federal Way , Washington , a walking trail built beneath power transmission lines. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from BPA Fast Facts - Fiscal Year 2006 (PDF) . United States Government . Archived from

1560-512: The Bonneville Power Act's anti-monopoly clause. The cheap price of aluminum from Alcoa helped aluminum sales grow in the post- World War II market. Overly optimistic estimates of future electricity consumption by BPA in the 1960s led the agency to guarantee some bonds for the disastrous Washington Public Power Supply System nuclear power project. Out of five nuclear power plants started ( WNP-1 and WNP-4 , WNP-3 and WNP-5 ), only WNP-2

1612-674: The ENTSO-E in 2008, over 350,000 megawatt hours were sold per day on the European Energy Exchange (EEX). Each of the interconnects in North America are run at a nominal 60 Hz, while those of Europe run at 50 Hz. Neighbouring interconnections with the same frequency and standards can be synchronized and directly connected to form a larger interconnection, or they may share power without synchronization via high-voltage direct current power transmission lines ( DC ties ), or with variable-frequency transformers (VFTs), which permit

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1664-607: The Pacific Northwest. The agency's name was changed to the Bonneville Power Administration in 1940. Attempts to replace the BPA with a Columbia Valley Authority that more closely resembled the TVA were made in the 1940s and 1950s, but were ultimately unsuccessful. BPA's first industrial sale was to Alcoa in January 1940, to provide 32,500 kilowatts of power. This, and the following 162,500 kilowatt order, led to complaints of

1716-467: The consumers to adjust the voltage and keep it within specification. In a synchronous grid all the generators must run at the same frequency, and must stay very nearly in phase with each other and the grid. Generation and consumption must be balanced across the entire grid, because energy is consumed as it is produced. For rotating generators, a local governor regulates the driving torque, maintaining almost constant rotation speed as loading changes. Energy

1768-429: The course of a whole 24 hour period. An entire synchronous grid runs at the same frequency, neighbouring grids would not be synchronised even if they run at the same nominal frequency. High-voltage direct current lines or variable-frequency transformers can be used to connect two alternating current interconnection networks which are not synchronized with each other. This provides the benefit of interconnection without

1820-456: The customer's premises. Distribution transformers again lower the voltage to the utilization voltage . Customers demanding a much larger amount of power may be connected directly to the primary distribution level or the subtransmission level. Distribution networks are divided into two types, radial or network. In cities and towns of North America, the grid tends to follow the classic radially fed design. A substation receives its power from

1872-508: The event of disturbances. One disadvantage of a wide-area synchronous grid is that problems in one part can have repercussions across the whole grid. For example, in 2018 Kosovo used more power than it generated due to a dispute with Serbia , leading to the phase across the whole synchronous grid of Continental Europe lagging behind what it should have been. The frequency dropped to 49.996 Hz. This caused certain kinds of clocks to become six minutes slow. A super grid or supergrid

1924-542: The losses of AC. Over very long distances, these efficiencies can offset the additional cost of the required AC/DC converter stations at each end. Substations may perform many different functions but usually transform voltage from low to high (step up) and from high to low (step down). Between the generator and the final consumer, the voltage may be transformed several times. The three main types of substations, by function, are: Aside from transformers, other major components or functions of substations include: Distribution

1976-694: The need to synchronize an even wider area. For example, compare the wide area synchronous grid map of Europe with the map of HVDC lines. The sum of the maximum power outputs ( nameplate capacity ) of the generators attached to an electrical grid might be considered to be the capacity of the grid. However, in practice, they are never run flat out simultaneously. Typically, some generators are kept running at lower output powers ( spinning reserve ) to deal with failures as well as variation in demand. In addition generators can be off-line for maintenance or other reasons, such as availability of energy inputs (fuel, water, wind, sun etc.) or pollution constraints. Firm capacity

2028-541: The number of people with access to grid electricity is growing. About 840 million people (mostly in Africa), which is ca. 11% of the World's population, had no access to grid electricity in 2017, down from 1.2 billion in 2010. Electrical grids can be prone to malicious intrusion or attack; thus, there is a need for electric grid security . Also as electric grids modernize and introduce computer technology, cyber threats start to become

2080-598: The original (PDF) on February 27, 2009. Power grid Grids are nearly always synchronous, meaning all distribution areas operate with three phase alternating current (AC) frequencies synchronized (so that voltage swings occur at almost the same time). This allows transmission of AC power throughout the area, connecting the electricity generators with consumers. Grids can enable more efficient electricity markets . Although electrical grids are widespread, as of 2016 , 1.4 billion people worldwide were not connected to an electricity grid. As electrification increases,

2132-559: The power outputs of generators on the grid is the production of the grid, typically measured in gigawatts (GW). Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, via a web of interconnected lines, to an electrical substation , from which is connected to the distribution system. This networked system of connections is distinct from the local wiring between high-voltage substations and customers. Transmission networks are complex with redundant pathways. Redundancy allows line failures to occur and power

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2184-725: The same relative frequency to many consumers. For example, there are four major interconnections in North America (the Western Interconnection , the Eastern Interconnection , the Quebec Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection ). In Europe one large grid connects most of Western Europe . A wide area synchronous grid (also called an "interconnection" in North America) is an electrical grid at

2236-512: The same settings share load in proportion to their rating. In addition, there's often central control, which can change the parameters of the AGC systems over timescales of a minute or longer to further adjust the regional network flows and the operating frequency of the grid. For timekeeping purposes, the nominal frequency will be allowed to vary in the short term, but is adjusted to prevent line-operated clocks from gaining or losing significant time over

2288-404: The substation, but for reliability reasons, usually contains at least one unused backup connection to a nearby substation. This connection can be enabled in case of an emergency, so that a portion of a substation's service territory can be alternatively fed by another substation. Grid energy storage (also called large-scale energy storage ) is a collection of methods used for energy storage on

2340-433: The transmission network, the power is stepped down with a transformer and sent to a bus from which feeders fan out in all directions across the countryside. These feeders carry three-phase power, and tend to follow the major streets near the substation. As the distance from the substation grows, the fanout continues as smaller laterals spread out to cover areas missed by the feeders. This tree-like structure grows outward from

2392-779: The two 500 kV AC lines of the Pacific AC Intertie, plus a third 500 kV AC line of the California-Oregon Transmission Project (COTP) (managed by the Balancing Authority of Northern California). Together these three lines are operated as the California-Oregon Intertie (COI) (managed by the California Independent System Operator CAISO). An additional DC ±500 kV line, the Pacific DC Intertie , links BPA's grid at

2444-414: The use of peaking power plants to fill in supply gaps and demand response to shift load to other times. The demand, or load on an electrical grid is the total electrical power being removed by the users of the grid. The graph of the demand over time is called the demand curve . Baseload is the minimum load on the grid over any given period, peak demand is the maximum load. Historically, baseload

2496-482: The year. Neighboring utilities also help others to maintain the overall system frequency and also help manage tie transfers between utility regions. Electricity Interconnection Level (EIL) of a grid is the ratio of the total interconnector power to the grid divided by the installed production capacity of the grid. Within the EU, it has set a target of national grids reaching 10% by 2020, and 15% by 2030. Electricity generation

2548-401: Was built to test the high voltage DC equipment intended for a planned connection between Celilo Converter Station and Hoover Dam that never was built. 45°35′38″N 121°06′45″W  /  45.5938°N 121.1125°W  / 45.5938; -121.1125 Bonneville Power Administration The Bonneville Power Administration ( BPA ) is an American federal agency operating in

2600-404: Was commonly met by equipment that was relatively cheap to run, that ran continuously for weeks or months at a time, but globally this is becoming less common. The extra peak demand requirements are sometimes produced by expensive peaking plants that are generators optimised to come on-line quickly but these too are becoming less common. However, if the demand of electricity exceed the capacity of

2652-475: Was completed. BPA is still making payments on three of the abandoned plants. In 2003, BPA's debt for the nuclear project totaled $ 6.2 billion. In 1973, the BPA commissioned TRW Inc. to write software for the PDP-10 mainframe computer that managed the agency's power grid; Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote the software for the monitoring system, which remained in operation until its replacement in 2013. In 2014,

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2704-532: Was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 20, 1936. The federal agency was created to market electricity from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams based on the model of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). It would provide a flat rate for customer utilities and use revenue from these sales to pay off the bonds used by the federal government to finance the construction of dams in

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