2010 Report - Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

Figure 5 Mid-Atlantic Area National Corridor and Critical Congestion AreaOn April 27, 2010, DOE released its 2009 National Electric Transmission Congestion Study. 17Congestion occurs on electric transmission facilities when actual or scheduled flows of electricityacross a line or piece of equipment are restricted below desired levels. These restrictions may beimposed either by the physical or electrical capacity of the line, or by operational restrictionscreated and enforced to protect the security and reliability of the grid. The study concludes that theMid-Atlantic Critical Congestion Area is the only nationally significant congestion area in theEastern Interconnection, which continues to experience high and costly levels of congestion thataffect a significant portion of the nation’s population, and should be continue to be identified as aCritical Congestion Area. DOE made this identification because of the area’s importance as apopulation and economic center and because of the many known transmission constraints andchallenges to building new transmission and managing load growth. The study also points out thatslow development of new generation and new backbone transmission facilities could compromisecontinued reliability in the Washington, Baltimore, New Jersey and New York City areas.Federal Power Act. In essence, the Court rejected FERC’s interpretation that it may exercise its backstop authoritywhen a state commission has affirmatively denied a permit application within one year. Piedmont EnvironmentalCouncil v. FERC, No. 07-1651 (4 th Cir. Feb. 18, 2009).17 U.S. DOE, 2009 National Electric Transmission Congestion Study, December 2009.8Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission