ReliabilityFirst Corporation
Don Urban has extensive experience in the field of reliability engineering and compliance auditing, beginning with a position as First Class Operator at PENELEC from October 1973 to April 1982. Urban progressed through various roles, including Operations Shift Supervisor at Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, Senior Training Specialist at General Physics Training, and Power System Controller at Conectiv. Don served as Power Director at Delmarva Power before working as a Reliability Engineer at PJM Interconnection from October 2001 until January 2008. Since then, Urban has been a Principal Analyst and Senior Consultant at ReliabilityFirst Corporation, focusing on compliance audits, functional certifications, and entity registrations.
ReliabilityFirst Corporation
ReliabilityFirst works to maintain the reliability, security and resilience of the electric grid across 13 states and the District of Columbia, which stretches from the Atlantic Seaboard to Lake Michigan. The electric grid is the backbone of our economy, is critical for our national security and necessary to support our public welfare. In fact, a reliable and secure electric grid is fundamental to our most basic daily routines and needs. Our mission is to ensure that this cornerstone to our national well-being is reliable and secure – not only for today but also for tomorrow. To achieve this mission, we bring together a diverse and broad spectrum of experts from across the nation with various professional, technical, and industry backgrounds. We identify and prioritize risks facing our electric grid; determine sustainable mitigation strategies to address these identified risks; and develop and deploy communication and outreach strategies to drive awareness and further ensure risk resolution. Our team includes electrical engineers, computer engineers and cyber security experts, statisticians and risk experts, attorneys and regulatory experts, professional auditors, systems engineers, organizational design experts, and professional trainers. ReliabilityFirst is one of only six companies across North America that are responsible for this vital work under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-approved delegation agreements with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). Specifically, our company is responsible for the reliability and security of the electric grid in the Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes areas of the United States, which includes all or portions of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. We are proud to call Cleveland, Ohio our home.