Power for Progress: Millions of megawatt-hours with a powerful purpose

Power for Progress…

A weekly column from the Grand River Dam Authority

Millions of megawatt-hours with a powerful purpose

The list of the nation’s largest public power electric utilities always includes the Grand River Dam Authority. 

GRDA is there because of a diverse mixture of gas, coal, hydroelectric, and even wind sources that have been developed throughout the utility’s 85-plus years of service to Oklahoma. In a typical year, that GRDA mixture combines to produce over 5 million net megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity. That is enough power for GRDA to be ranked as the 24^th largest publicly owned utility (by generation) in the United States.

Of course, generating and delivering such a large amount of electricity round-the-clock is a team effort that includes a workforce at multiple facilities performing hundreds of different tasks. There are generators to operate, mechanical systems to maintain, meters to read, power lines to patrol and many other tasks related to producing and delivering abundant, reliable electricity to customers across a four-state region.

Electricity is the only real-time commodity bought and sold on the market and it cannot be stored. That means even as GRDA works constantly to produce the power it must constantly balance supply and demand. This balance is important not only for customer needs but also to help insure the reliable operation of the nation’s electric power grid. Because GRDA operates a significant portion of that grid, it must comply with the regulations of oversight agencies such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).

To accomplish this, there is a staff of NERC-certified employees who oversee the generation, transmission, and accounting of every megawatt of power across the GRDA system. It always passes under the watchful eye of Team GRDA personnel who have planned for it, produced it, tracked it and delivered it.

Ultimately, it reaches into customer homes and businesses, where, without too much thought, a switch is flipped, or a button is pushed, and the one true purpose of the power is finally realized. Even then, the process to produce more electricity is always underway at GRDA.