Fast Facts

A reliable electricity system is paramount to the economy, physical security, and quality of life in North American society.  Ultimately, NERC’s activities benefit not only electricity industry participants, but every person and business that uses electricity delivered via the North American electric grid.

NERC oversees reliability for a bulk power system that:

• Provides electricity to 334 million people
• Has a total electricity demand of 830 gigawatts (830,000 megawatts)
• Has 211,000 miles or 340,000 km of high-voltage transmission line (230,000 volts and greater)
• Represents more than $1 trillion (US) worth of assets.

• Writes standards for the reliable planning and operation of the high-voltage electric grid in North America
• Enforces compliance with those reliability standards and assesses monetary and non-monetary penalties for noncompliance
• Assesses the adequacy and reliability of the bulk power system via annual summer, winter and 10-year forecasts
• Investigates when things go wrong with the bulk power system
• Promotes a culture of excellence by identifying areas for improvement and Examples of Excellence during regular “readiness” evaluations of utility system operators
• Communicates Examples of Excellence and Lessons Learned to the industry
• Monitors the status of the bulk power system in real-time to allow system operators access to the overall picture rather than just their region
• Coordinates physical and cyber security needs
• Benchmarks industry performance
• Helps the industry train and educate system operators
• Certifies organizations and operators responsible for the bulk power system.

For more detail on these activities, click here.  

Main office:

Princeton Forrestal Village
116-390 Village Boulevard
Princeton, NJ  08540-5721
USA

609-452-8060 - Phone
609-452-9550 - Fax