In a quiet corner of Novi, there’s a secure facility that plays a crucial role in keeping the lights on for a large part of the country. This is where ITC Holdings, an expert in the operations of the nation’s electric grid, oversees the high-voltage electrical transmission infrastructure of seven states: lower Michigan, parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Entry into this fortress of energy management isn’t easy. It requires multiple levels of security checks, numerous swipe card accesses, and even a fingerprint scan for approved personnel to get past the revolving door leading to the nerve center of the operation.
Why such high security, you may ask? The answer is simple. Inside is a top-secret control room, housing a large-scale digital grid map featuring electric transmission highways across several states, the command post from where a team of dedicated engineers keep the electric grid on track, ensuring a steady supply of electricity to millions of homes and businesses.
Operators keep a keen eye on the electric pathways, arranging and prioritizing the flow of power according to real-time needs. That means, if Illinois is in dire need of electricity, surplus electricity from Michigan could be directed there.
One may think of ITC as traffic police for electricity on a national level, orchestrating the smooth movement of power, making sure supply meets demand and no area experiences a blackout. To do this effectively, ITC Holdings relies heavily on physical and cybersecurity measures and is always on guard against potential attacks.
To give you an idea of the scale of their work, according to their 2023 earnings report, ITC’s full year revenue from transmission and “other services” was $1.6 billion, up from $1.5 billion the previous year. That’s a lot of electricity flowing across the country!
Operating 24/7, the diligent engineers ensure that the grid is never left unmonitored and always ready to adapt to any changes. Imagine if a significant storm takes out some power lines, ITC has to move swiftly to shut down parts of the system, allowing for repairs and then swiftly bringing it back on once it’s safe again.
Interestingly, this role of overseeing the high-voltage transmission lines used to be a job for DTE. That was until 2003 when ITC Holdings acquired the outstanding ownership interests from DTE Energy. Since then, ITC has steadily grown and is now a subsidiary of Fortis Inc.
Now, the services provided by ITC are ever more critical. The 2003 blackout that affected around 50 million people witnessed firsthand the importance of the electric grid and its maintenance. Since that incident, operational standards and maintenance have evolved, lessons have been learned, and procedures have regularly updated, ensuring such a catastrophic failure doesn’t repeat.
Moving forward, in line with Michigan’s Healthy Climate plan, ITC is poised to play a pivotal role. While the control room operators maintain the present, ITC’s Michigan Interconnection Group, with their continual research and innovative thinking, represents the future. They’re the ones tasked with the challenge of exploring how to more efficiently and reliably connect renewable energy sources to the existing grid system, an essential aspect of the state’s objective to achieve 100% clean energy by 2040.
Indeed, the work undertaken by ITC Holdings is critical for our everyday lives and our future. They are both the guardian of our current power supply and a key player in shaping a cleaner and sustainable power framework for our future.
