There are many entities that play a role in ensuring the reliability of the North American power grid.  There are system planners, generation and transmission operators, grid overseers, and regional reliability organizations that monitor these parts of the power system for compliance with standards.

Some other organizations that play a reliability role continuously monitor the transmission and generation network over wide geographic areas to insure reliable and efficient operations.  On a local level, power generation and transmission companies operate their plants and lines and monitor their equipment to ensure that it is operating safely and reliably. 

NERC and eight regional reliability organizations in North America, including MRO, work with members of the power industry to benchmark best practices, develop standards for operation of the power grid, and monitor compliance with those standards.  If it is found that standards are violated, we develop a plan to bring the member organization back into compliance.  Moreover, MRO has the authority to assess substantial fines for violations, which adds an extra incentive to adhere to standards.  

Each of the following activities makes a significant contribution to the overall effort to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system in North America.
 
The MRO:

	Reviews the adequacy and reliability of the bulk power system in our region through annual winter and summer seasonal assessments, as well as in ten-year forecasts
	Benchmarks industry performance and promotes a culture of excellence by identifying areas for improvement
	Develops standards for reliable planning and operation of the grid in the North Central region of North America
	Monitors and enforces compliance with both regional and NERC reliability standards; assesses monetary penalties for non-compliance
	Analyzes disturbances in the bulk power system

Energy conservation, new generation resources and transmission lines are key.  Electricity usage in the United States is projected to grow more than twice as fast as committed resources over the next 10 years. As a nation, we need to support a dual approach to ensuring reliable power supply—an emphasis on energy conservation by everyone who uses power and continued construction of new generation and transmission facilities.  Wind and solar energy are gaining community, government and investor support as generation resources that provide environmental benefits. However, they are often remotely located and require new transmission lines to deliver their power to population centers. 

There are reliability standards that apply to operations and maintenance of equipment, training people who operate the network, creating redundant equipment and systems, documenting procedures, sharing information among neighboring systems, security of information systems, etc.

“Reliability” simply means our ability to count on power to be supplied where it is needed when it is needed.

“Adequacy” refers to the ability of the electric system to supply customers with power at all times, including periods of high demand. This determination takes into account scheduled and reasonably expected unscheduled outages of equipment in the system, availability of fuel resources and sufficient generation equipment and transmission lines.

Every situation is different and requires thoughtful review and analysis to gather facts and determine the sequence of what happened.  It may take several weeks or several months, depending on the complexity of the system disturbance.

Next, it is determined whether steps can be taken to avoid a similar outage in the future.  If there was a violation of a standard, we begin a process to mitigate the violation and then determine appropriate fines and/or enforcement actions.

Not necessarily.  Equipment failures, weather events, and other factors could cause wide spread power outages. 

The development and enforcement of standards mitigates many of the risks and strengthens the reliability of the grid. However, even with enforceable reliability standards, weather events and equipment failures can cause outages.  Having standards in place helps reduce the possibility of such an outage.

An event analysis is an “after the fact” review of an outage or disturbance on the bulk power system.  Many entities are involved in an analysis to determine the exact causes and what, if anything, can be done to prevent similar disturbances in the future.  The results of the analysis are shared with other entities responsible for the reliability of the bulk power system and are eventually posted on the NERC website.

Local power companies may or may not be involved in a particular large outage.  The bulk power system is complex and is interconnected in very large geographic areas of North America.  Some types of disturbances impact only portions of the bulk power system and some can impact customers very remote from the actual equipment failure or loss.

Some outages are a result of local delivery problems and may be related to weather or equipment problems.