You expect reliable and affordable electric service from your electric cooperative, so how does Roughrider Electric Cooperative deliver on that promise? A complex network of power generation and tens of thousands of miles of electrical lines work together to ensure enough electricity is available on the coldest winter morning and during the hot days of summer.
What happens when the demand for power overwhelms the ability to provide the electricity? That’s a particularly complicated question, given the transition taking place in how electricity is produced and shared across this network.
The key to meeting energy needs essential to your quality of life, is balancing electricity supply with demand. While that may sound simple, a complex web of facilities and organizations work together to make it happen each day.
Regional transmission organizations coordinate, control and monitor the electric grid across several states in a region. Think of them as energy traffic managers on an interstate highway system, regulating the number of cars – in this case, electricity – and their destination.
Our cooperative is part of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) as the regional transmission organization.
In recent years, organizations such as SPP have issued new requirements for additional generation capacity. These requirements are being put in place to ensure the grid has enough available power, even during extreme conditions.
As a distribution electric cooperative, we don’t generate our own electricity, but we purchase it through our generation and transmission (G&T) providers, including Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). This means our G&T providers will need to have additional sources of power and are building for the future to ensure we have enough capacity. Ultimately, this has also increased our power costs to ensure reliability.
While these investments come at a cost, they are essential to maintaining the reliable electric service you depend on today while preparing the grid to meet the challenges and energy needs of tomorrow