The North American bulk power supply is not only the largest but, by far, the most reliable electrical network in the world. The 1975 NERC annual report stated: "The record of the past year (1975) attests to the successful operation of the network even under various stresses caused by violent weather conditions, equipment failures and several acts of sabotage." Another mute testimony to the strength of the system was provided by its successful operation during the adverse conditions caused by the fuel shortages and bad weather conditions of January 1977. The Reliability Councils and the operating utilities and/ or power pools are quite different. Each of the Reliability Councils is based on a voluntary agreement among the member utilities to uphold the basic principles of reliable system planning and operation; membership in the Reliability Council is a voluntary agreement. An operating utility is a centrally controlled organization having the direct responsibility of building, operating and maintaining the equipment (generation, transmission and distribution) necessary to meet the load in its area reliably and at the lowest possible cost. An operating power pool centrally controls all the generation and transmission equipment owned by its member utilities; the contracts which define the power pool contain legal penalties for nonconformance to reliability criteria. A decision to build and operate a 5 GWe SPS to be placed in one of the Reliability Regions may have a significant effect on the regional planning process; the effect may be no greater than the effect of placing any similarly sized generator in the region. The purpose of this section of the report is to investigate the likely magnitude of the effects. Since each reliability council operates somewhat differently, it has been impossible to do more than indicate the circumstances under which problems would occur so as to guide the SPS design team in their efforts.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==