Experience with joint AGC regulation

Operating generators on automatic generation control (AGC) to follow load fluctuations has often been considered an unavoidable cost of doing business. However, several months of testing and more than two years of commercial operation have demonstrated that there can be significant benefits in transferring AGC regulation from three predominantly thermal-based utilities to a fourth predominantly hydro-based utility. This arrangement called joint AGC regulation successfully transfers high frequency regulation components for reduced fuel and maintenance costs and allows dynamic interchange scheduling to achieve flexible generation scheduling and improved economic dispatch. Successful implementation involved development of a joint AGC regulation control strategy and an evaluation of the tangible and intangible costs of providing AGC regulation