Did You Know

Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell Urges President Bush to Support
FERC’s Efforts to Promote RTO Development

In a recent letter to President Bush, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D) encouraged the president to oppose efforts to limit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) authority to promote the development and expansion of regional transmission organizations (RTOs), particularly in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Gov. Rendell said Pennsylvania energy companies have played a very important role in founding the PJM Interconnection, and that “PJM’s markets have demonstrated proven benefits to consumers in PJM’s original Mid-Atlantic region.”

“A recent independent analysis found more than $3 billion in customer savings in 2002 alone from the relatively efficient market operations in the region. And these savings have been accumulating since 1997, when PJM’s new market operations first began,” the letter said.

“The benefits of competition, along with PJM’s success in assuring reliability, have made PJM a model that others around the country are trying to duplicate. PJM’s performance has also led many companies to express interest in joining the PJM marketplace, and PJM is scheduled to more than double in size with the addition of these new companies.”

Rendell was principally concerned with how plans to expand PJM with the addition of American Electric Power Company (AEP) have faced challenges from Virginia and Kentucky. He said that “some in Congress — most of whom are from outside the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest — will seek to use the legislative process to eviscerate FERC’s efforts to foster [RTOs] to serve the interests of all electricity consumers.”

“Tying FERC’s hands as it seeks to enhance efficient and reliable service across the interstate transmission grid would be detrimental to the interests of the millions of citizens who constitute a majority of electricity customers in the United States,” Rendell said.

AEP’s integration into PJM, according to Rendell, will help coordination between the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest regions that will strengthen reliability and benefit consumers with competitive wholesale electricity markets.

For more information, contact EPSA’s Kimberly Blackburn at kblackburn@epsa.org, or call (202) 349-0158.