Figure 1 NERC regionsNote: The highlighted area between SPP and SERC denotes overlapping Regional area boundaries. For example,some load serving entities participate in one Region and their associated transmission owner/operators in another.ERCOTElectric Reliability Council of TexasFRCCFlorida Reliability Coordinating CouncilMROMidwest Reliability OrganizationNPCCNortheast Power Coordinating CouncilRFCReliabilityFirst CorporationSERCSoutheastern Electric Reliability CouncilSPPSouthwest Power PoolWECCWestern Electricity Coordinating CouncilReliabilityFirst CorporationThe regional reliability council covering <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> is the ReliabilityFirst Corporation (RFC),based in Akron, Ohio. RFC was formed by the merger of the Mid-Atlantic Area Council(MAAC), the East Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement (ECAR) and the Mid-America Interconnected Network Inc. (MAIN). RFC is one of eight regional councils of NERCand serves the electrical requirements of more than 72 million people in a 238,000 square-mile areacovering all of the states of Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, <strong>Pennsylvania</strong>, New Jersey andWest Virginia, plus the District of Columbia, and portions of Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan,4<strong>Pennsylvania</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Utility</strong> <strong>Commission</strong>
Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. RFC became operational on Jan. 1, 2006. Its membershipincludes load serving entities, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), suppliers andtransmission companies. See Figure 2.Figure 2 RFC footprintRFC sets forth the criteria which individualutilities and systems must follow in planningadequate levels of generating capability.Among the factors which are considered inestablishing these levels are load characteristics,load forecast error, scheduled maintenancerequirements and the forced outage rates ofgenerating units. The RFC reliability standardsrequire that sufficient generating capacity beinstalled to ensure that the probability of systemload exceeding available capacity is no greaterthan one day in 10 years. Load serving entitiesthat are members of RFC have a capacityobligation determined by evaluating individualsystem load characteristics, unit size and operating characteristics.In addition to all NERC Standards, all heritage ECAR, MAAC, and MAIN standards that havenot yet been replaced by vote of the RFC Board remain in effect.There have been no enforcement actions against any <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> RFC members since theexpansion of NERC’s new authority. 14Regional Transmission OrganizationsThe two main control areas within the RFC footprint are the PJM Regional TransmissionOrganization (PJM RTO) and the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO). Two-thirds ofthe RFC load is in the PJM RTO.PJM InterconnectionThe PJM Interconnection LLC (PJM) is a regional transmission organization that ensures thereliability of the largest centrally dispatched control area in North America. PJM coordinates theoperation of 163,500 MW of generating capacity and 56,350 miles of transmission lines. The PJMRTO coordinates the movement of electricity through all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana,Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, <strong>Pennsylvania</strong>, Tennessee,Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. See Figure 3.14 See http://www.nerc.com/filez/enforcement/index.html.Electric Power Outlook for <strong>Pennsylvania</strong> 2009-2014 5