Electric Co-op Today

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a final policy statement setting priorities to guide the industry in developing standards for smart grid devices and systems.

The July 16 action will help accelerate the standards development process, allowing proposed smart grid standards to be submitted for regulators’ review in an expeditious manner, Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said.

The final statement (Docket PL09-4), was approved by unanimous vote.

FERC’s statement also set commission policy on the recovery of costs by utilities that invest early in smart grid technologies. The commission said it would allow cost recovery upon demonstration that the expenditures protect system cybersecurity and reliability, and allow for future upgrades.

The statement also specified that the commission would not interfere with states’ ability to adopt advanced metering or demand response programs.

“The commission is not interested in usurping traditional state jurisdictional authority,” emphasized Commissioner Marc Spitzer.

Rich Meyer, NRECA senior regulatory counsel, noted that policy statements are non-binding indications of how the commission intends to act and that any policies they set forth must be justified in individual cases where they are ultimately applied.

“We are cautiously pleased that FERC indicates it is not seeking to expand its jurisdiction at the expense of the states,” Meyer added. “We will watch carefully to see how this intention translates into action.”

POLICY PRIORITIES

FERC’s policy statement established as a commission priority the industry’s early development of smart grid standards to:

• Ensure the grid’s cybersecurity;
• Provide two-way communications among regional market operators, utilities, service pro­viders and consumers;
• Ensure that power system operators have equipment that allows them to operate reliably by monitoring their own system and those neighboring systems that affect it; and
• Coordinate the integration in­to the power system of em­erging technologies such as re­newable re­sources, demand re­sponse re­sources, electricity storage facilities and electric transportation systems.

Tags: Cyber Security, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Smart Grid