Electric Co-op Today

Improvements have been made in identifying risks to bulk electric system reliability and prioritizing the development of standards to address them, an electric cooperative executive told federal regulators.

Michael Smith

However, “there are things that can be done better,” Michael Smith, president and CEO of Georgia Transmission Corp., told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Nov. 29, the opening day of a two-day technical conference on reliability.

Specifically, FERC’s grid reliability watchdog should continue to explore steps to reduce compliance burdens on industry and other stakeholders, Smith said.

At the same time, he indicated, that watchdog, the North American Electric Reliability Corp., should focus on the issues that are most critical to system reliability.

Through appropriate definition of the bulk electric system, agreement on the reliability objective, and increased focus on developing results-based standards, administrative compliance burdens can be reduced for those entities that don’t significantly impact the system, Smith said.

A task force of industry representatives and regulators will make recommendations to the NERC board next year on defining reliability objectives, he added.

Another speaker, Gerry Cauley, NERC chairman and CEO, termed 2011 “a challenging, but productive year.” He noted that the watchdog group had moved forward on initiatives such as standards prioritization, bulk electric system definition and reliability risk management.

One of NERC’s goals is to develop a list of priorities, focusing on areas most likely to have a positive impact on system reliability, he specified.

Other industry participants echoed Smith’s support of the prioritization process. Backing also was heard for NERC’s “find, fix, track and report” initiative, which aims to treat minor incidents similar to a warning ticket, and not go through the full compliance and enforcement process.

However, it was pointed out, these tools remain in the testing stage.

Concluding the proceeding, FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, who chaired the session, said she was “looking forward to seeing the progress on improving the standards process.”

Noting that Cauley had raised the prospect of an annual “state of reliability” evaluation, the commissioner agreed that “it might be good to systemize it.”

Commissioner James Norris described reliability efforts as an ongoing process of balancing regulatory costs with consumers’ need for dependable electricity.

“We can’t just have compliance for compliance’s sake,” Norris said. “Reliability must be the goal.”

Tags: Electric Grid, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Reliability Standards