Standards/Programs

RSS

Industry respondents criticized the team working on revisions to NERC’s standard for protection functions in automatic voltage regulators (AVR) for expanding the scope of the project beyond its initial mandate. Comments on the proposed standard authorization request (SAR) for Project 2019-04 — modifications to reliability standard PRC-005-6 — opened June 2...

FERC approved NERC reliability standard PRC-024-3 last week, capping a nearly two-year effort to ensure that inverter-based resources (IBR) — particularly solar panels — can "continue to support grid stability during defined system voltage and frequency excursions" (RD20-7). Work on the new standard, which replaces the existing standard PRC-024-2, began...

System operators in the WECC footprint were too quick to declare energy emergency alerts (EEAs) during several recent events, resulting in unnecessary load sheds on two occasions, according to a new NERC "lessons learned" notice. The notice detailed five incidents in which software glitches, communication lapses and generator malfunctions contributed...

NERC issued its second Level 2 alert of the year on Wednesday to gather data on the bulk power system’s exposure to "foreign adversaries," at the same time the Department of Energy published a request for information on the industry’s practices for identifying and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities for BPS...

NERC is requesting comments from stakeholders on changes to several reliability standards proposed by the team updating the requirements for determining and communicating system operating limits (SOLs), as well as on the team’s implementation plan (Project 2015-09). The posting was approved by NERC’s Standards Committee at its previous meeting in...

FERC on Friday accepted a slew of settlements for violations of NERC reliability standards, with American Electric Power, DTE Energy, Eversource Energy, Portland General Electric and Exelon among the utilities hit with monetary penalties by their regional entities. AEP’s violation carried the largest penalty at $1 million, followed by DTE...

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday rejected a huge boost in megawatts for the San Francisco Bay Area that CAISO insists NERC and Western Electricity Coordinating Council reliability standards require. In a unanimous vote, the commission agreed with Administrative Law Judge Debbie Chiv that adding 1,850 MW of capacity...

The Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) covered a number of timely issues at its quarterly Board of Directors meeting, held via conference call on Thursday because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Protests, Racial Tensions Acknowledged MRO CEO Sara Patrick wasted no time addressing the protests in the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.,...

FERC is seeking industry comments on a proposed incentive framework meant to encourage utilities to make cybersecurity investments above and beyond the requirements of NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards (AD20-19). Limitations in CIP Standards Recognized In a white paper published Thursday, FERC described the proposed incentive framework as a...

Citing concerns over the adequacy of NERC’s critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards, FERC on Thursday issued a notice of inquiry (NOI) seeking comments on potential gaps in the standards and what actions the commission may need to take to improve them (RM20-12). FERC positioned its NOI as a response to...