The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has launched its Electric System Operating Data Tool. The web-based tool provides nearly real-time data, analysis, and visualizations of hourly, daily, and weekly electricity supply and demand on a national and regional level and for all of the 66 electric systems that make up the U.S. electric grid.
The information is collected directly from each interconnected electric system and is the first hourly data survey conducted by a federal statistical agency. Although electric system balancing authorities covering most of the United States have released voluminous public, nearly real-time information on grid operations since the late 1990s, EIA’s U.S. Electric System Operating Data tool expands the availability of data to the entire contiguous 48 states, and makes it available in a consistent format from a single source.
The U.S. Electric System Operating Data Tool can be accessed at:
http://www.eia.gov/beta/realtime_grid.
The web tool provides state government leaders and energy officials nearly real-time information on the recovery of electric systems after major power interruptions, such as those caused by hurricanes, winter storms, and blackouts. The data provided by the tool can also be used to evaluate the effect of renewable power, smart grid, and demand-response program on the power industry. It also provides the information that policymakers, entrepreneurs, market-participants, and researchers information on the dynamics of electric system operations.
The tool has easy-to-understand graphics that visualize:
- U.S. and regional electricity demand on an hourly basis
- Hourly flow of electricity between electric systems
- Electricity demand and the seasonality of daily demand patterns
- Internal and external sources of supplies to meet an electric system’s demand
- Potential stress on electric systems when actual demand exceeds forecasted demand
- Flows of electricity between the United States and Canada and Mexico