Did You Know

Commonwealth Edison Completes Successful Integration into PJM

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Commonwealth Edison’s (ComEd) full integration into the PJM Interconnection on April 27, 2004. As a result, at midnight on May 1, 2004, PJM, which also serves as the regional transmission organization (RTO) for the Mid-Atlantic region, began managing the flow of wholesale electricity over ComEd’s 5,000-plus miles of bulk transmission lines and expanding its competitive wholesale power market operations to include ComEd.

As an independent RTO, PJM will ensure for consumers that all wholesale buyers and sellers of electricity will have unfettered access to ComEd’s bulk transmission system. The full integration of ComEd’s transmission system into PJM’s wholesale electricity market means that PJM is now the world’s largest transmission system operator, meeting a peak demand of 87,000 megawatts.

In its order approving ComEd — a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. — to join PJM, FERC noted that the integration would benefit customers “by promoting more effective competition in regional wholesale power markets, assuring non-discriminatory transmission service, and improving reliability.”

In a joint news release with ComEd, PJM President and CEO Phillip G. Harris said it was a milestone for the industry. “It demonstrates the benefits of regional transmission organizations and the important relationship between reliability and electricity markets,” Harris said.

“ComEd’s integration into PJM will bring immediate benefits to customers in Northern Illinois,” said Elizabeth A. Moler, executive vice president of Exelon, and a former FERC chair. “The timing is ideal for stimulating and supporting the area’s overall economic recovery as customers have access to the strongest wholesale electricity market in the country.”

ComEd originally applied to FERC in May 2002 to join PJM, and that request was granted by FERC in April 2003. The North American Electric Reliability Council assessed the integration from a reliability standpoint, and approved PJM’s reliability plans and processes for its operations in the Northern Illinois Control Area in March 2004. Subsequently, FERC, in its April 27 order, established May 1 as the date for integrated operations to begin.