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On May 9, 2011, Chairman Jon Wellinghoff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) and Gerry Cauley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) announced that they will work together to look into the causes of electrical outages and disruptions of natural gas delivery in the Southwest during February 2011.

On April 21, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) that would require the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to provide Commission staff with access to electronic tags (“e-Tags”) or requests for interchange used to schedule wholesale power.

On March 17, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”)  affirmed an original $80,000 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) proposed penalty against Turklock Irrigation District (“Turlock”) for an outage caused by vegetation management, specifically reviewing the Notice of Penalty (“NOP”) for FAC-003-1 R2 (see March 5, 2010 edition of the WER).

On January 31, 2011 the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) filed its first Administrative Citation Notice of Penalty (“NOP”), at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”).  In addition to the Administrative Citation NOP, NERC also filed 22 individual NOPs.

On November 30, 2010, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) released its 2010/2011 Winter Reliability Assessment (the “Assessment”) and the 2009/2010 Post-Winter Reliability Assessment.  NERC prepares an annual reliability assessment that demonstrates how the industry maintains the bulk power system for both summers and winters. 

On November 18, 2010, FERC directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to revise the definition of the bulk electric system to include all facilities necessary for operating an interconnected transmission network.  FERC said this is best achieved by eliminating the ability of regions to have discretion over the definition, and the definition should include all facilities at or above 100 kV except defined radial facilities. 

On October 27, 2010, Cedar Creek Wind LLC (“Cedar Creek”) and Milford Wind Corridor Phase I, LLC (“Milford”) filed two separate appeals with FERC to challenge a decision by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) that would force the wind generators to register as a transmission owner and operator.