Keeping the Lights On!
The complexity of an electric system has to do, in part, with the array of equipment that must be put together, maintained and operated to provide you with electricity; transformers, transmission lines in the air and underground, switches, breakers, capacitor banks, power poles and power plants just to name some. We in the Power Control Center do our part in operating it. We dispatch electric crews to restore power when your service is interrupted or to perform routine maintenance and new construction. We coordinate power plant output so that you have the electricity you want when you need it. We also keep an eye on the system for possible overloads to electric lines or equipment that could cause an outage.

Where Does It Come From?
We try to make using electricity as convenient and safe as possible for you. When you turn on a light or run the vacuum or power tools you probably don't give much thought about using energy and how it gets there. Once a month you receive a bill and pay for the energy you used the month before. We in turn buy that energy but we do it in a slightly different, more complicated way. Our staff must predict for every hour of the day how much electricity our customers will need one to two days before they will actually use it. We then make arrangements for that energy to be available from any number of sources, which include long-term contracts, our own generation and the wholesale spot market.

Too Much or Too Little.
When the day arrives and our customers begin using electricity an interesting thing occurs. The actual amount of energy being used may not match what we had predicted earlier. We will find ourselves with either too much or too little energy. The system operator deals with too much energy by turning to the spot market to sell the extra or coordinate with the power plant to back down. For too little energy, the system operator will either buy or have the power plant produce more. Of course, his purpose will be to keep the costs as low as possible, so, he will try to find the best deal.

Is That So?
Buying and selling electricity on the wholesale spot market can be mind-boggling and comes with some risk. Consider energy brought home from locations as far away as New Mexico in the south or Canada in the north, providing you have rights on or own high voltage transmission. Transmission lines sometimes break down and interrupt the power flow because of fires, overloading, equipment failure, harsh weather, etc. And when that happens we have to scurry to replace the interrupted energy. A concern when buying and selling in the market is to do business with those that can be trusted and who will pay their bills. We have in place safeguards that can reduce the risk of another not paying the bill.

That Settles It.
Once the buying and selling is done for the month bills are exchanged. Billing disputes are avoided by accounting for all the electricity that was bought and sold, then we "settle" with all concerned. Would you like to pay one of those bills?