This feature class/shapefile represents electric power balancing authorities. Balancing Authority Areas also known as Control Areas, are controlled by Balancing Authorities, who are responsible for monitoring and balancing the generation, load, and transmission of electric power within their region, often comprised of the retail service territories of numerous electric power utilities. Each control area is interconnected with neighboring ones to facilitate emergency support, coordinated operations, and power purchases and sales. These shapefiles are based on the Control Areas shapefiles published in the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation Level Database (HIFLD) as of April 3, 2022. Note that balancing authorities are electric entities and do not have well-defined geographical boundaries. As a result, the balancing authority shapefiles sometimes overlap each other and sometimes have gaps in geographic coverage. The geographic shapefiles provide a rough idea of the extent of coverage for each balancing authority; they are not meant to represent strict boundaries. Only balancing authorities in the Lower 48 states are included.