Operating Environment and Functional Requirements for Intelligent Distributed Control in the Electric Power Grid

The restructuring of the U.S. power industry will surely lead to a greater dependence on computers and communications to allow appropriate information sharing for management and control of the power grid. This report describes the operating environment for system operations that control the bulk power system as it exists today including the role NERC plays in this process. Some high-level functional requirements for new approaches to control of the grid are listed followed by a description of the next research steps that are needed to identify specific information management functions.