[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14731-14732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNIZING PJM INTERCONNECTION

 Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I would like to take this moment for 
the Senate to recognize and honor the work of the PJM Interconnection 
and its 600

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employees in Valley Forge, PA. This month, the company celebrates the 
90th anniversary of its founding, as well as the 20th anniversary of 
its formation as an independent grid operator.
  PJM is a world-class institution that oversees the largest power grid 
in North America. PJM performs the critical function of keeping the 
lights on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for more than 65 million 
people in all or portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and the District of Columbia.
  PJM began in 1927 when three utilities realized the benefits and 
efficiencies possible by interconnecting to share their generating 
resources and formed the world's first continuing power pool. Since 
then, PJM's work has been dedicated to ensuring that reliable 
electricity is available at a reasonable price.
  In 1997, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved PJM as the 
Nation's first fully functioning independent system operator. ISOs 
operate but do not own transmission systems in order to provide open 
access to the grid for nonutility users.
  Since that beginning of three utilities, PJM has grown to more than 
1,000 members. Those members represent transmission owners, generation 
owners, consumers, and residential and commercial customers in each of 
its 13-state region.
  PJM has three simple goals: keeping the lights on, administering the 
buying and selling of electricity through wholesale electricity 
markets, and assessing and planning for the future needs of the 
electric grid. PJM has devoted itself to those goals as an industry 
technology innovator, operating similar to a stock exchange and 
developing electricity rates through a bidding process that aligns 
supply with demand. That PJM model is one that has been emulated not 
just across the country, but around the world.
  As the work of PJM has reached a global scale, I am especially proud 
that this company continues to call Pennsylvania home and remains an 
integral part of our economy and electric grid infrastructure. For the 
last 90 years, PJM has worked to develop groundbreaking changes in 
electricity and technology to improve the lives of all Americans. 
Together with a grateful Commonwealth and a grateful nation, I take 
this opportunity to thank them for their last nine decades of 
innovation and wish them well for another 90 years of excellence and 
beyond.

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