Operational Coordination Structure

Infrastructures and Subsystems that support the systematic operational alignment of both Utility and non-Utility assets as Power Systems move from hundreds to tens of millions of participating Energy Resources. In an operational context characterised by greater Volatility, advanced Operational Coordination is essential for safe, secure and efficient Power System operation in a manner that has a high level of Resilience, Scalability and Extensibility.


A sample of conventional and emerging examples include:

  1. Market/System Operator (MSO) exerts control over Energy Resources participating in the Wholesale Market by sending Dispatch Instructions and basepoints to secure necessary services.
  2. MSO exerts control over the Transmission Network in response to a constraint or contingency to preserve System Security and Reliability.
  3. Aggregators provide the MSO and Distribution System Operator (DSO) resource availability forecasts for Energy Resources. 
  4. The MSO and DSO conjointly manage their respective sides of the Transmission-Distribution Interfaces (TDI) due to the growing dependence on Energy Resources located on both sides of the TDI.
  5. Aggregators orchestrate contracted Distributed Energy Resources (DER) in response to the various market structures for procuring the Electric Products required by different Tiers/Layers of the system. 

Advanced Operational Coordination models are ultimately required to enable the transition to a more holistic Transmission-Distribution-Customer (TDC) model of system coordination.

Given the fast-evolving nature of power system transformation, the Future Grid Accelerator (FGA) has the status of a perpetual BETA version. Your suggestions for how each concept and definition may be enhanced are very welcome.

All feedback will be reviewed and considered for inclusion in subsequent updates.

Please provide your suggestions to improve to this definition: