December
Item E-16: FERC approves Reliability Standard EOP-001-0 - Emergency Operations Planning (EOP), December 15, 2011, Decision.
November
Item E-13: FERC approves NERC’s proposed amendments to the NERC Rules of Procedure. The amendments modify the Election Procedure for Members of NERC Standards Committee and the Registered Ballot Body Criteria, November 17, 2011, Decision.
Item E-4: FERC approves revised Reliability Standard FAC-013-2, Assessment of Transfer Capability for the Near-Term Transmission Planning Horizon, November 17, 2011, Decision.
Item E-5: FERC approves Reliability Standard FAC-008-3 (Facility Ratings) and the retirement of Reliability Standards FAC-008-1 (Facility Ratings Methodology) and FAC-009-1 (Establish and Communicate Facility Ratings, November 17, 2011, Decision.
October
Item E-4: FERC accepts NERC’s 2012 Business Plan and Budget, October 20, 2011, Decision.
Item E-6: FERC approves interpretation of Requirement R10 of Transmission Operations (TOP) Reliability Standard TOP-002-2a (Normal Operations Planning). This Reliability Standard requires, in pertinent part, each balancing authority and transmission operator to maintain plans to evaluate options and establish procedures for the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System for current day and future operations, as well as coordinate current day and future operations with neighboring balancing authorities and transmission operators, October 20, 2011, Decision.
Item E-3: FERC seeks comment on Reliability Standards PRC-006-1 (Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding) and EOP-003-2 (Load Shedding Plans), October 20, 2011, NOPR.
Item E-2: FERC seeks comment on Transmission Planning Reliability Standard TPL-002-0a, Table1, footnote b regarding planned or controlled interruption of electric supply where a single contingency occurs on a transmission system, October 20, 2011, NOPR.
Item E-7: FERC approves the Northeast Power Coordinating Council’s (NPCC) Protection and Control (PRC) regional Reliability Standard PRC-002-NPCC-01 (Disturbance Monitoring) and two associated new definitions. The regional Reliability Standard requires transmission owners and generator owners to provide recording capability necessary to monitor the response of the Bulk-Power System to system disturbances, including scheduled and unscheduled outages; requires each reliability coordinator to establish requirements for its area’s dynamic disturbance recording needs; and establishes disturbance data reporting requirements, October 20, 2011, Decision.
Item E-8: FERC denies the Army Corps of Engineers-Tula District request for rehearing of the Commission January 14, 2011 order and affirms the Commission previous rulings that require federal entities to adhere to mandatory Reliability Standards under FPA section 215, October 20, 2011, Decision.
September
Item E-3: FERC clarifies several matters from Order No. 733-A regarding Reliability Standard PRC-023-1 regarding “relay loadability,” September 15, 2011, Order No. 733-B.
Item E-6: FERC seeks comment on Reliability Standard PRC-023-2 (Transmission Relay Loadability) which requires transmission owners, generator owners, and distribution providers to set relays according to specific criteria in order to ensure that the relays reliably detect and protect the electric network from fault conditions, but do not limit transmission loadability or interfere with system operators’ ability to protect system reliability, September 15, 2011, NOPR.
Item E-7: FERC approves Reliability Standard PER-003-1, September 15, 2011, Decision.
Items E-1, E-4 & E-5: FERC takes steps to support continued reliability of electric grid, September 15, 2011, NOPR | Order No. 753 | Order No. 754.
May
Item E-17: FERC accepts NERC’s revised, comprehensive approach to the assignment of violation risk factors and violation severity levels. This order also accepts NERC’s Guideline 1 Report. Finally, the order grants rehearing of the Order No. 722 directive to change violation severity level assignments for three Reliability Standards requirements, in order to take into account NERC’s revised comprehensive approach, May 19, 2011, Decision.
Item E-18: FERC approves NERC’s interpretation of Requirements R1.1 and R4 of Reliability Standard CIP-006-2 (Cyber Security – Physical Security of Critical Cyber Assets). The order also directs Commission staff to convene a technical conference to gather information and discuss with NERC, subject matter experts, and the industry the cyber security implications of NERC’s approved interpretation to assess whether any modification to the Reliability Standard is necessary, May 19, 2011, Decision.
April
Item E-9: FERC approves four revised regional Reliability Standards developed by WECC and five new regional definitions applicable within the Western Interconnection, April 21, 2011, Order No. 751.
Item E-8: FERC approves the System Operating Limits Reliability Standard developed by WECC that will ensure that actual flows and associated scheduled flows on major WECC transfer paths do not exceed system operating limits for more than 30 minutes, April 21, 2011, Order No. 752.
Item E-11: FERC seeks comment on proposed NERC interpretation of Reliability Standard, TOP-001-1, Requirement R8, April 21, 2011, NOPR.
Item E-10: FERC approves NERC’s interpretation of the Commission-approved Reliability Standards, Reliability Coordination – Current-Day Operations, Requirement R12, and TOP-005-1, Operational Reliability Information, Requirement R3. Specifically, the interpretation finds that a transmission owner must report a Special Protection System that is operating with only one communication channel in service to the reliability coordinator and neighboring systems upon request, or when the loss of the communication channel will result in the failure of the Special Protection System to operate as designed, April 21, 2011, Order No. 750.
March
Item E-9: FERC approves regional Reliability Standard of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) IRO-006-WECC-1 (Qualified Transfer Path Unscheduled Flow Relief) and six associated new definitions. This Reliability Standard is intended to mitigate transmission overloads due to unscheduled flow on a transfer path designated by WECC as being qualified for unscheduled flow mitigation, March 17, 2011, Order No. 746.
Item E-8: FERC approves three new Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination Reliability Standards and seven revised Reliability Standards related to Emergency Preparedness and Operations, Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination, and Transmission Operations, March 17, 2011, Order No. 748.
Item E-6: FERC approves Reliability Standards EOP-001-1, EOP-005-2, and EOP-006-2. These Reliability Standards are modifications of existing standards relating to blackstart planning, testing, and training , March 17, 2011, Order No. 749.
Item E-7: FERC approves regional Reliability Standard BAL-502-RFC-02 (Planning Resource Adequacy Analysis, Assessment and Documentation), March 17, 2011, Order No. 747.
Items E-4 & E-10: FERC reaffirms order requiring revised definition of bulk electric system, March 17, 2011, Order No. 743-A | Decision E-10.
February
Item E-7: FERC grants, in part, requests for rehearing and clarification, and grants an extension of time with respect to the March 18, 2010 order regarding Transmission Relay Loadability Reliability Standard PRC-023-1,February 17, 2011, Order No. 733-A.
FERC Launches Staff Inquiry into Southwestern Outages, February 14, 2011, Order
January
Item E-11: FERC approves NERC’s proposed Violation Risk Factor (VRF) designations for Version 2 and Version 3 Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards, subject to modifying the VRF for CIP-003-2 Requirement R2, which requires that there be a single senior manager responsible for implementation of, and compliance with, the CIP reliability standards, January 20, 2011, Decision.