A body or committee whose members own or control the transmission facilities within a given region. RRCs allow all parties involved in energy transmission to work together to insure the reliability of the systems they manage. There are nine separate regional councils in the continental US and another in Alaska, all coordinated by the North American Electric Reliability Council.

The concept of reliability councils first gained acceptance shortly after the legendary 1965 blackout in the northeastern United States. Many believe that the expense and hardships that resulted from this costly event could have been substantially reduced if transmission facility owners had worked together to improve reliability and flexibility in the system.

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