To reach your home, electricity takes a long journey through the electric grid, which connects power plants, transmission and distribution lines, and homes and businesses across multiple states.
Let’s take a closer look at how your home fits into that grid.
The Grid: Close to Home
Your home receives power from your local electric cooperative, which distributes electricity to your neighbors and surrounding counties.
That electricity actually comes from Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC). ODEC generates the power for its 11 member distribution cooperatives.
ODEC generates electricity through many energy sources in order to maximize reliability and affordability. And when power is cheaper on the market than we can make it, ODEC purchases power instead. Like your local cooperative, ODEC is also a not-for-profit, meaning it only answers to the people it serves, like you.
The Grid: Beyond Your Cooperative
Beyond ODEC and its local electric cooperative members, the electricity network gets bigger. ODEC and its 11 member cooperatives are part of a regional transmission organization called PJM interconnection (PJM). PJM acts much like an air traffic controller, coordinating power generation and movement across 13 states and Washington, D.C., including more than 67 million customers and 1,400 power generators.
Unlike ODEC, PJM doesn’t own power generation. It directs which power generators are used when, telling power generators when to turn on, supporting the flow and affordability of electricity across its region. When one power generator can produce electricity at a lower cost than others, the entire region benefits. In addition, during times of high demand like extreme weather events, PJM redirects power within its region to help ensure electricity is available where it’s needed most.
Increasing Demand and Increasing Risk
More electricity is being used every year. As demand for power increases at an astonishing rate, a reliable, affordable supply of electricity is more important than ever before.
In recent years, our lives have become more dependent on electricity — our homes, our cars, our devices and technology, our businesses. That has added more burden to the grid.
Imagine the electrical grid as a bathtub. The faucet is the electricity generation, and the drain is the homes and businesses that consume electricity. Today, with increasing demand, the water is emptying through the drain faster than water is coming out of the faucet. If the imbalance continues, eventually the tub will be empty.
While demand increases, many power plants across our nation have been retired, or are forecasted to retire before the end of their useful lives, due in large part to environmental concerns and related regulations. The fact that the state policies are prohibiting new dispatchable generation resources makes the problem worse, as plants are being shut down faster than replacement resources are being built. The tub’s faucet is getting weaker while its drain is getting larger.
Adding new generation has challenges, including siting and permitting, regulation, the rising cost of materials, time to build, and a long queue of waiting projects. Decisions between always available baseload power and renewables, which have political and economic factors to consider along with reliability, affordability, and environmental responsibility, are also at play.
Finally, the electric grid itself is in need of upgrades to handle growing transmission demands as more electricity moves through the system — just like internet and water supply systems have to be upgraded to handle more volume.
If PJM can’t meet increasing demands, the reliability we all depend on is at risk. It’s a challenge generation partners like ODEC, along with grid operators and distribution cooperatives, are all focused on navigating.
Electricity isn’t just important, it’s critical — and essential for our future. ODEC and its electric cooperative members are continually evaluating new strategies and emerging technologies to meet growing power needs.
Though the grid, the industry, and demand have changed, one thing hasn’t: Electric cooperatives remain committed to ensuring reliable, responsible, affordable power is there when you need it, every hour of every day.
