County Earns $38,000 for Electricity Exchange Program

The following is a press release from Chester County.

Chester County earned almost $38,000 in 2012 by participating in an electricity “Capacity Market Demand Response Program” run by regional electrical transmission company PJM.

The program calls for participating organizations to curtail electricity during times of extremely high demand.  The County worked with PJM to alleviate pressure to the grid during high usage times and is being rewarded for doing so. 

Three County buildings took part in the program, curtailing energy during last summer’s heat waves.  These buildings are the Chester County Library, the Henrietta Hankin Library and Pocopson Home, which moved power to its back-up generator.

Projections for this year indicate the County could earn more than $62,000 in connection with the program.

PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. Acting as a neutral, independent party, PJM operates a competitive wholesale electricity market and manages the high-voltage electricity grid to ensure reliability for more than 60 million people.

Chester County is the first county in Pennsylvania to initiate a strategic planning process and has a Aaa rating on its bonds from Moody’s Investors Service as well as AAA ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.  Established by William Penn as one of Pennsylvania’s three original counties, Chester County was named by Forbes.com as one of America’s best places to raise a family and is ranked the healthiest county in Pennsylvania by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.