Across North America, there are four primary sections of the electrical grid — areas where transmission and distribution lines are combined to service homes and businesses. These four areas are separate grids that make up the entire North American grid and are called “interconnections.” They are grouped together like this to capitalize on economies of scale, while still making it possible to efficiently transmit electricity within reasonable distances. The Energy Information Administration explains that interconnections ensure the reliability, or resiliency, of the grid by allowing electricity to flow from generators to end users via several routes. Redundancies created across these interconnected regions make for a more stable and reliable grid that can withstand fluctuations or outages in power supply.[135]
Michigan is in the Eastern Interconnection along with several states in the eastern United States and seven of the eight most eastern Canadian provinces.[*] Utilities in an interconnect are electrically linked together in normal operating conditions to provide electricity to the states and provinces within their area. This means that an electrical generator in Michigan could conceivably generate electricity that is used by a customer in Indiana.[136]
Within the state of Michigan, two operations monitor high-voltage transmissions and ensure Michigan residents have access to an open, nondiscriminatory, high-voltage transmission system, as required under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 888.[137] This means that any legally operated generator has a right to access high voltage transmission lines to transmit their electricity to the open market. The organizations that provide this service are the Independent System Operator and the Regional Transmission Organization.
The specific roles of ISOs and RTOs are similar, and it can be difficult to see a difference between the two. Both operate under the auspices of FERC, which regulates the transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil across state lines.[138] FERC describes its role: “assist[ing] consumers in obtaining reliable, efficient and sustainable energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means.”[139] Both ISOs and RTOs exist to control and manage the electrical grid in their respective areas of operation. RTOs are described as having a “greater responsibility for the transmission network” than ISOs.[140]
The majority of Michigan falls within the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO territory. A small portion of southwestern Michigan is within the operating area of a RTO called PJM. PJM was originally called the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection. Due to their proximity, MISO and PJM have agreed to operate their full markets as a “joint and common,” or a single wholesale market, to serve customers in their operating areas and to effectively help the two areas to operate more like a single market.[141]
[*]Not including Quebec, which has its own interconnection.