METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY - Pennsylvania Public Utility ...

Company, and The Toledo Edison Company. ATSI owns major high voltage facilitiesincluding approximately 7,100 miles of transmission lines with voltages of 345kV,138kV, and 69kV including 37 interconnections with six neighborhood controlling areas.ATSI’s transmission system offers gateways into the east via high capacity ties withPenelec and Met-Ed. In July 2009, FirstEnergy proposed to integrate ATSI’s footprintinto PJM effective June 1, 2011. FirstEnergy’s proposal was primarily based on therelative strength of the tie lines that connect the ATSI transmission facilities with thePJM system compared to the Midwest Independent System Operator (ISO).FirstEnergy expects that more optimum day-ahead commitments, and therefore areduction in the total congestion across the combined PJM and Midwest ISO systems,will be achieved by including the ATSI system in PJM, the transmission system to whichit is more strongly tied.In the fall of 2006, FirstEnergy developed the FERC and RTO Policy Departmentin order to deal with RTO policies and FERC matters. In order to improve power flow,the FERC and RTO Policy Department gets actively involved in stakeholder processesthat involve major transmission facilities. The primary objective of the FERC and RTOPolicy Department is to coordinate FirstEnergy’s participation in the FERC and RTOstakeholder processes and to develop and advocate a corporate mission on variousFERC and RTO initiatives. In FERC Order 890, FERC obligated transmission ownerssuch as FirstEnergy to address, among other things, transmission planning for thepurpose of alleviating transmission congestion. The FE-PA Companies implement thisrequirement through their participation in the PJM and Midwest ISO RTOs. PJM’sFERC approved Operating Agreement describes and provides for robust annualplanning that addresses identification and mitigation of congestion as it occurs on thegrid including the transmission systems of Met-Ed and Penelec.The Secretary of the PJM Planning Committee indicated that FirstEnergy is anactive member of the Planning Committee and the Transmission Planning AdvisoryCommittee (TEAC). FirstEnergy attends and interacts with these committees on amonthly basis. The PJM Planning Committee addresses technical and proceduralissues related to planning and the PJM RTEP process. The TEAC focuses mainly onthe results of the analytical studies and the proposed solutions. PJM’s RTEP identifiestransmission system additions and improvements needed to keep electricity flowing to51 million people throughout 13 states. Studies are conducted to test the transmissionsystem against mandatory NERC standards as well as PJM regional standards. Thesestudies project 15 years into the future to identify transmission overloads, voltagelimitations, and other reliability standards violations. PJM develops transmission plansbased on these studies in order to resolve violations that could otherwise lead tooverloads and/or blackouts.Working with PJM and FERC on transmission related issues is extremely vital,especially when working with transmission lines across state borders. By developingthe FERC and RTO Policy department, FirstEnergy has taken steps to ensure thattransmission issues are proactively acted upon and dealt with in a timely manner. Byincluding ATSI in PJM’s footprint, a reduction in total congestion across the combinedPJM and Midwest ISO systems has been achieved. Moreover, PJM conducted energymarket simulations using two different scenarios regarding the inclusion of the ATSI- 47 -