Reliability standards for the U.S. bulk-power system are up for approval in a recently proposed rulemaking.
The rulemaking proposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) titled “Mandatory Standards for the Bulk-Power System” aims to approve 83 of 107 reliability standards submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). In July 2006, NERC was named the U.S. Electric Reliability Organization (ERO).
If the standards are approved by the Commission, they become mandatory and there can be financial penalties for users, owners or operators of the bulk-power transmission grid who fail to comply with the standards, according to FERC.
The proposal requires that each reliability standard identify the subset of users, owners and operators to which each particular reliability standard applies. Further, the Commission proposed to amend its regulations to require that each reliability standard approved by the Commission is maintained in the Commission’s public reference room and on the ERO’s Web site for public inspection.
Many of the 83 reliability standards the Commission proposes to approve require additional work or clarification. In addition, 24 standards remain pending at the Commission until further information is provided that will enable the Commission to evaluate the standard. According to FERC, they are not proposing to remand any standards.
