NERC News

Subscribe to NERC News via RSS

On January 29, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) issued a Report on the FERC-NERC-Regional Entity Joint Review of Restoration and Recovery Plans (the “Report”). The Report was the result of a joint review initiated by FERC in September, 2014 and conducted in coordination with NERC and the NERC Regional Entities. The joint review examined a representative sample of nine registered entities with significant bulk power system responsibilities, with the stated objective of: (i) assessing and verifying the electric utility industry’s bulk power system recovery and restoration planning; and (ii) testing the efficacy of related NERC Reliability Standards in maintaining and advancing reliability.

On January 19, 2016, FERC Staff issued a white paper entitled, “Guidance Principles for Clean Power Plan Modeling.” Additionally, on January 27, 2016, NERC issued a special reliability assessment entitled, “Reliability Considerations for Clean Power Plan Development.” Each document is aimed at assisting various industry stakeholders with the implementation of EPA’s Clean Power Plan while maintaining grid reliability.

On January 21, 2016, the Commission approved revisions to seven Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Reliability Standards developed and submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”), all of which were previously proposed for approval in a July 16, 2015 FERC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”). According to the Commission, the revised Reliability Standards are “designed to mitigate cybersecurity risks to bulk electric system facilities, systems, and equipment, which, if destroyed, degraded, or otherwise rendered unavailable as a result of a cybersecurity incident, would affect the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System.”

On December 31, 2015, FERC issued an order applying the seven-factor test to exclude certain transmission facilities owned by Southern California Edison Company (“SoCal Edison”) from North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) regulation. SoCal Edison filed an application under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) and FERC Order No. 773, seeking a determination from FERC that certain of its 115 kV facilities were “facilities used in the local distribution of electric energy,” and therefore, were exempt from NERC regulation under the plain language contained in Section 215 of the FPA. In its application, SoCal Edison presented seven transmission and substation facility configurations for FERC consideration. Using the seven-factor test set forth in Order No. 888, FERC determined that five of the seven facilities were “facilities used in local distribution” and were exempt.

On November 5, 2015, NERC reported to the NERC Board of Trustees (“NERC Board”) that it had been unable to identify groups of similarly-situated Transmission Owners (“TOs”), Transmission Operators (“TOPs”), Generator Owners (“GOs”), or Generator Operators (GOPs”), that should automatically qualify for a reduced set of compliance obligations through a “sub-set” list of Reliability Standards, as part of Phase II of NERC’s Risk-Based Registration (“RBR”) initiative. The NERC Board accepted the report, and endorsed a recommendation from NERC that such “sub-set” lists be granted by the NERC-led review panel to individual entities on a case-by-case basis, rather than as a class, at least for the time being.

On November 4, 2015, FERC issued an order conditionally accepting the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) compliance filings articulating its Reliability Assurance Initiative (“RAI”) concepts and programs, and providing details on NERC’s oversight and evaluation of the RAI program (“November Order”).  FERC’s acceptance is conditioned upon NERC providing additional information in its annual report on RAI and making an additional compliance filing to modify its Rules of Procedure within 120 days of the November Order.

On November 2, 2015, the Commission conditionally approved revised Regional Delegation Agreements (“RDAs”) between the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) and the eight NERC Regional Entities. The RDAs are the agreements through which NERC delegates to the Regional Entities its legal authority under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act to propose and enforce mandatory Reliability Standards.

On October 15, 2015, the Commission accepted the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) compliance filing implementing NERC’s Risk-Based Registration (“RBR”) initiative, and, among other things, authorized NERC’s proposal to eliminate the Load-Serving Entity (“LSE”) registration function.  The Commission further directed NERC to submit an informational filing on the impact of the removal of the LSE function on the next-day studies of Transmission Operators and Balancing Authorities.

On September 28, 2015, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) submitted to FERC its annual analysis on the use of Technical Feasibility Exceptions (“TFEs”).  TFEs are exceptions from strict compliance with NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Reliability Standards that Registered Entities may apply for, pursuant to a process established in the NERC Rules of Procedure.

On July 17, 2015, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) submitted a compliance filing with the Commission regarding NERC’s Risk-Based Registration (“RBR”) initiative, including renewed requests for the elimination of the Load-Serving Entity (“LSE”) registration function.  The Commission previously rejected, without prejudice, NERC’s proposal to eliminate the LSE registration function in its March 19, 2015 order (the “March 19 Order”) on NERC’s RBR initiative.