Grid Field Guide

Field guide · 4 chapters · no engineering degree required

Grid Field Guide

Follow electricity from the power plant to the customer's meter, then up into the control room that runs it all. Four interactive chapters for program managers and other non-engineers who work around the grid and need to speak its language.

Start with chapter 1 See all chapters

The whole guide on one line

CHAPTER 4 Grid operations sees, decides, controls SCADA real-time path ADMS OMS · FLISR · VVO DERMS DER dispatch 5 min to milliseconds CHAPTER 1 Power mix Gas plant Wind Solar PV Battery bus: supply = demand CHAPTER 2 Distribution substation recloser switch fuse transformer customer feeder · ~12 kV CHAPTER 3 DER + microgrids PCC meter 250 kW PV 750 kW BESS two-way
Click a region to open that chapter. Simplified: one feeder, one lateral, one DER site.

Follow the power, then the decisions

Chapters 1 to 3 follow the electricity. Chapter 4 steps back to show the systems that watch and steer it.

  1. One-line diagram of a gas plant, wind farm, solar and battery feeding a town bus
    Chapter 115-minute dispatch

    Power mix

    Where does the power come from?

    A small town runs on one gas plant. Add wind, solar and a battery, then scrub through a 24-hour day to see who supplies each megawatt, why solar gets curtailed at noon, and how a battery's MW rating differs from its MWh.

    • Diagram
    • Playground
    • How the math works

    Next: the power reaches a substation. What happens after that?

  2. One-line diagram from a substation through a recloser, fuse and transformers to customers
    Chapter 212 kV primary · 120/240 V

    Distribution

    How does power get from the substation to the meter?

    A clickable one-line diagram of a feeder, overhead and underground. Insert a fault, watch the recloser or fuse respond, then open switches and close a tie to restore as many customers as you can.

    • Diagram
    • Playground
    • Glossary
    • Flashcards
    • Quiz
    • Build the Circuit
    • Reliability
    • Costs

    Next: some customers start sending power back.

  3. Site one-line diagram from the utility recloser and meter to solar and battery inverters
    Chapter 31,000 kW nameplate

    DER & microgrids

    What changes when a customer makes power too?

    A worked example: a municipal site with 250 kW of solar and 750 kW of battery storage tied into one feeder. Follow the interconnection from the utility side to the inverters, see who owns what, and what it costs.

    • Diagram
    • Glossary
    • Playground
    • Costs
    • Quiz

    Next: who keeps track of thousands of devices like this one?

  4. Layered diagram of utility systems from wholesale markets through ADMS and head-ends to field devices
    Chapter 450 quiz questions

    Grid operations

    How do the software systems run all of it?

    A layered model from wholesale markets down to field devices: what OMS, FLISR, SCADA, DERMS and MDMS each do, what data moves between them, and how fast. Then step through five situations, from a storm outage to a heat-wave peak.

    • Explore the model
    • Real-life scenarios
    • Concepts quiz

    Last chapter. The bar at the top of every chapter brings you back here.

Go in order, or jump in

Each chapter builds on the one before it, but every chapter stands on its own. The bar at the top of each one moves you between them.

Click everything

Every diagram is live. Click a piece of equipment to see what it does, then try it in the Playground.

Simplified on purpose

Voltages, costs and device behavior are typical values for learning. Check with your utility's engineers before using a number for a real decision.