Electric Power Outlook - Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. See Figure
3.
Figure 3 PJM RTO service territory
On April 1, 2002, PJM West became
operational, broadening the regional scope of
the electric grid operator for the Mid-Atlantic
Region, to include Allegheny Power and
marking the first time, nationally, that two
separate control areas were operated under a
single energy market and a single governance
structure.
On May 1, 2004, PJM began managing the flow
of wholesale electricity over Commonwealth
Edison’s 5,000 miles of transmission lines in
Illinois, making PJM the world’s largest grid
operator, meeting a peak demand of 87,000 MW. On Oct. 1, 2004, PJM began managing
American Electric Power’s (AEP) eastern control area, including 22,300 miles of high-voltage
transmission lines within a seven-state area and 23,800 MW of generating capacity. At the same
time, Dayton Power and Light integrated into the PJM RTO with 1,000 miles of transmission lines
and 4,450 MW of generation. Also, 20 municipal electric companies, cooperatives and generators
in the AEP area joined PJM. On Jan. 1, 2005, PJM began managing the wholesale flow of
electricity for Duquesne Light Company, with 3,400 MW of capacity and 620 miles of
transmission lines. These entities, including Allegheny, comprise PJM West.
Virginia Electric and Power (Dominion) was integrated into the PJM RTO on May 1, 2005.
Dominion’s control area, covering parts of Virginia and North Carolina, operates separately under
the single PJM energy market as PJM South, including an additional 6,100 miles of transmission
lines and 26,500 MW of generating capacity.
On Aug. 17, 2009, FirstEnergy Service Company filed a request with FERC to consolidate all of
its ATSI 14 transmission assets, currently operated by MISO, into the PJM RTO. ATSI has 32
interconnections with PJM, but only three with MISO. Moving ATSI into the PJM RTO is
expected to reduce congestion and increase efficiency across both RTOs. The integration, which
was approved by FERC on Dec. 17, 2009, became effective June 1, 2011.
On May 20, 2010, Duke Energy Corporation announced its desire to move its Ohio and Kentucky
utilities from MISO to the PJM RTO by Jan.1, 2012, which would increase PJM’s generating
capacity by 2,379 MW. The subsidiaries would also add 5,800 MW to PJM’s system peak load.
14 American Transmission Systems Inc., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corporation, has assets located within the footprint
of FirstEnergy’s Ohio and Pennsylvania (Penn Power) utilities, including 7,100 circuit miles of transmission lines with
nominal voltages of 345 kV, 138 kV and 69 kV.
6
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission