“Flying” an electric power system: Not unlike a pilot, the power system operator can monitor the automatic control of the system or manually “fly” the system during an emergency

Electric power systems are continually becoming larger, more interconnected, and are being forced to operate with lower capacity reserves in both generation and transmission. Transmission voltage levels are increasing so that each line can carry more and more real power. An extra high voltage (EHV) transmission line may carry up to 2500 MWe; individual generating units are often capable of generating 1000–2000 MW of real power. These trends, coupled with the fact that most large units under construction or recently built are located far from the load centers, place a heavy responsibility on the dispatch control operator — the person in the dispatch control room who makes the decisions that control the operation of the overall power system.