NERC glossary terms of the month

August 17, 2011

Each month, we’ll share some of the terminology used by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. You’ll see these terms in reports and other coverage of the electric power industry, so it’s a good idea to brush up on exactly what NERC means.

Balancing Authority (BA)
A balancing authority is the entity that is responsible for:

• integrating resource plans
• maintaining the balance of load, interchange, and generation within a specific area
• supporting the interconnection frequency in real time. Wabash Valley Power’s BAs are MISO and PJM.

Local Balancing Authority (LBA)
While NERC doesn’t specifically define this term, we consider it to mean the entity that performs the BA function in a specific local area. For Wabash Valley, the LBAs include  Duke, NIPSCO, Ameren (IL), Ameren (MO), IPL, Consumers, and AEP.

Reliability Coordinator (RC)
The reliability coordinator is the entity with the highest level of authority that is responsible for the reliable operation of the bulk electric system. The RC has the wide area view of the bulk electric system, along with the operating tools, processes and procedures, including the authority to prevent or mitigate emergency operating situations in both next-day analysis and real-time operations.  The RCs for Wabash Valley are also MISO and PJM.