Engineering:Grid connection

A grid connection is a connection to an electrical grid by either a generator of power, or a consumer of power. A premises is generally said to have obtained grid connection when its service location becomes powered by a live connection to its service transformer. A power station is generally said to have achieved grid connection when it first supplies power outside of its own boundaries. However, a town is only said to have achieved grid connection when it is connected to several redundant sources, generally involving long-distance transmission. Connection points are called busses. Busbars can be 50 mm (~2 in) in diameter in electrical substations. Traditionally, these grid connections are unidirectional point to multipoint links. In some grids, they are bidirectional, and the reverse flow can raise safety and reliability concerns. Features in smart grids are designed to manage these conditions.

U.S. electric system is made up of interconnections and balancing authorities, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). A balancing authority is the responsible entity that integrates resource plans ahead of time, maintains load-interchange-generation balance within a Balancing Authority Area, and supports Interconnection frequency in real time. The transmission facility(ies) are interconnecting Balancing Authority Areas. Interconnection consists of one or more balancing area authorities that balance demand and generation within certain geographic areas of the interconnection.