Annual Commissioner-led Reliability Technical Conference

8:30 a.m.

Opening Remarks and Introductions

Chairman Glick and Commissioners

8:45 a.m.

Panel 1: Bulk-Power System Reliability and Security:  Current State, Challenges, and Initiatives (120 min)

This panel will begin with a presentation by NERC Senior Leadership Team, followed by a panel discussion, and Q&A with the Chairman and Commissioners.

NERC senior leadership will discuss Bulk-Power System reliability, security performance, and associated challenges, highlighting the conclusions and recommendations from NERC’s Annual State of Reliability Report and the 2021 ERO Reliability Risk Priorities Report.

The Bulk-Power System is undergoing tremendous changes and challenges, including a significant and swift transition to variable energy resources, many of which are inverter-based resources and distributed-energy resources; the increased use of natural gas generating units; the increased frequency of extreme weather events; and emerging cybersecurity threats.  Panelists will be asked to address the following:

1. The most recent NERC State of Reliability and Reliability Risk Priorities Reports identify current and emerging reliability and security risks to the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System.  How is NERC prioritizing the identified risks to ensure reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System is maintained?  What additional actions can NERC and the Commission take to better address these risks?
2. Developing appropriate forward-looking metrics to identify reliability risks is critical.  How can NERC’s existing metrics be improved upon so that they not only measure current risks, but also become leading indicators of future risks?
3. Discuss whether current tools (e.g., whitepapers, bulletins, guidelines, workshops, standards) are adequate, timely and effective in identifying and addressing emerging risks.  If not, how can these tools be improved and what other tools are needed?  What types of information does the industry need, that it may not have, to evaluate and address reliability and security threats?  What obstacles impede industry’s ability to gain access to needed information, and how can they be resolved?
4. What additional efforts should the Commission consider to improve supply chain security to safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure from reliability and security threats?  How can industry, NERC and the Commission assess if the reliability and security risks are adequately mitigated?  How can these risk mitigation measures be improved?
5. What additional actions can the Commission, NERC, and industry take to further protect the grid from security threats, both physical and cyber?

NERC Presenters:

1. James B. Robb, President and Chief Executive Officer, NERC
2. Mark Lauby, Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer, NERC
   Presentation

Panelists:

3. Christopher Pilong, Director, Operations Planning, PJM Interconnection on behalf of the ISO/RTO Council   | Presentation
4. Cheryl A. LaFleur, Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Advisory Board Member at the Center on Global Energy Policy  | Presentation
5. Roy L. Jones, Chief Executive Officer of ElectriCities of North Carolina on behalf of the American Public Power Association (APPA),  the Large Public Power Council (LPPC),  and the Transmission Access Policy Study Group (TAPS)  (collectively, the Public Power Associations) | Presentation
6. Commissioner Ann Rendahl, Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, speaking on behalf of NARUC | Presentation
7. Jennifer Sterling, Vice President, NERC Compliance & Security, Exelon, on behalf of Edison Electric Institute (EEI)   | Presentation
8. Francis Bradley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) | Presentation
9. Greg Ford, President & CEO, Georgia System Operations Corporation on behalf of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) | Presentation

10:45 a.m.

Break

11:00 a.m.

Panel 2:  Extreme Weather, Risks and Challenges (90 min)

The electric grid has been challenged recently with extreme weather conditions that increase customer demand and reduce availability of generation and transmission resources.  Climate change and extreme weather events have resulted in an expanded wildfire season in the West as well as stronger hurricanes in the East, both of which can threaten major transmission paths.  Recent extreme weather events, such as the events in Texas and California, have highlighted a number of additional issues such as:  the need to evaluate energy availability at times other than system peak (e.g., net peak or when load/resources are rapidly changing); the threat of common mode failures (e.g., fuel supply chain); the need for more accurate system modeling; the importance of gas-electric coordination; and the importance of being able to import and export energy between regions.  Past extreme weather events suggest that additional transmission capacity could help avoid or resolve these issues and resulting uncertainties.  Panelists will be asked to address the following:

1. How should planning inputs or assumptions change due to the increased likelihood of extreme weather?  How should regions identify what extreme weather (including, but not limited to, extreme heat and extreme cold) the system should be able to withstand?  How should the risk of common mode failure due to extreme heat or extreme cold be modeled?
2. What modeling tools and approaches are needed to plan and operate the grid moving forward, given the increased likelihood of extreme weather?  Would a probabilistic and statistical approach better assess how often load is likely to be interrupted by extreme weather and determine whether and how a certain type of weather event needs to be addressed?  What opportunities exist for NERC and the Commission to improve practices in these areas?
3. Besides public safety power shutoffs, what additional proactive actions can be taken to keep electric facilities in service during extreme weather conditions that heighten fire danger (e.g., working with wildland managers and fire fighting agencies on solutions)?
4. Reliability Standards:
   1. Should transmission planning Reliability Standards be revised to require the system to meet more stringent planning criteria for extreme weather conditions?  Should the TPL Reliability Standards be revised so that certain amounts of transmission capacity between regions are maintained for use during extreme weather events?
   2. What changes should be made to the Reliability Standards to address extreme weather events?  Would changes to the Reliability Standards requiring additional, or new operating reserves, beyond what is currently required during extreme weather conditions, improve reliability?  Should the EOP Reliability Standards be revised to specifically address system restoration under extreme weather events?  Similarly, should the Reliability Standards be revised to require continuous operating assessments of fuel supply and energy availability?
5. What changes, if any, should be made to resource adequacy studies to better reflect energy availability at times other than system peak (e.g., net peak or when load/resources are rapidly changing)?
6. Given how critical the natural gas supply is to the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System, discuss any potential improvements to gas-electric coordination.  Is natural gas freezeoff, or other impediments to natural gas production, a risk to electric reliability, and, if so, how should this be considered and addressed in Reliability Standards?  Are there changes either the natural gas industry or the electric industry should consider to ensure the availability of gas for electric power generation during extreme weather periods?

Panelists:

1. Peter Brandien, Vice President, System Operations and Market Administration, ISO-NE | Presentation
2. Lisa Larroque Alexander, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Sempra | Presentation
3. Michelle Mizumori Cathcart, Vice President, Transmission System Operations, Bonneville Power Administration | Presentation
4. Branden Sudduth, Vice President of Reliability Planning and Performance Analysis, Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) | Presentation
5. Aubrey Johnson, Executive Director, System Planning & Competitive Transmission, Midcontinent Independent System Operator | Presentation
6. Bruce Rew, Senior Vice President, Operations, Southwest Power Pool | Presentation

12:30 p.m.

Lunch Break

1:30 p.m.

Panel 3:  Managing Cyber Risks in the Electric Power Sector (120 min)

The electric grid faces constant and evolving cyber threats that have the potential to result in devastating consequences for our economy as well as the health and safety of citizens.  Since the CIP Reliability Standards have become mandatory and enforceable in 2009, there has been a tremendous amount of work aimed at protecting the most critical assets.  However, given the continued evolution of threat actors and the changing threat landscape, this panel will discuss what additional changes may be needed to meet these evolving threats.

1. Low-impact Bulk Electric System Cyber System (BCS) make up the majority of the BCS and have a significantly lower level of mandatory protection as compared to medium or high-impact BCS.  Recent cybersecurity events have highlighted that low-impact BCS are potential targets for cyberattacks.

1. Discuss whether the cybersecurity requirements that are applicable to low-impact BCS provide a reasonable level of defense based upon the potential effects of a cyberattack targeting single or multiple locations (i.e., a coordinated cyberattack)?  If not, what types of additional cybersecurity controls can be applied to the low-impact BCS and discuss the additional benefits/protections provided?
2. Currently, the Reliability Standards implement a tiered approach to categorizing BCS, identifying them as high, medium, or low risk to Bulk-Power System reliability if compromised.  These categories are primarily based on bright line (kV and MW/MVA) thresholds.  In light of recent cyberattacks like Solar Winds, is this still an appropriate approach?  Would a modified or wholly new categorization approach to these rating categories better address the cybersecurity risks to the Bulk-Power System?

2. In light of the increasing cyberattacks against critical infrastructure such as the recent outage of the Colonial Pipeline, explain how the convergence of information technology and industrial control system technologies within the same networked environment has changed the approach in securing the Bulk-Power System.
   1. Specifically, ransomware has been in the forefront of the news.  Explain how a ransomware attack could impact reliable operations of the Bulk-Power System and how does this differ from other types of cyberattacks that should be defended against?
   2. What additional or improved cybersecurity controls could users, owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System deploy to mitigate the risk of a ransomware attack?  How would the deployed controls and their corresponding costs differ based on the high, medium, and low impact ratings of the CIP Reliability Standards?
   3. What concerns exist with legacy systems as they interact with non-legacy technologies, and what are the security concerns related to the various levels of security controls specific to the high, medium, and low impact ratings?
3. Recent concerns raised over the potential national security risks posed by equipment and services provided by entities like Huawei Technologies Company (Huawei), ZTE Corporation (ZTE) and Kaspersky Lab (Kaspersky) highlight vulnerabilities to the electric industry’s supply chain.  One of the challenges with the supply chain – across manufacturers, vendors, and system integrators – is that there are no consistent protocols that oversee or guarantee that the hardware or software they provide to utility companies is secure and free from hidden threats.  Discuss how the Commission and NERC can improve supply chain integrity and security.
   1. What additional efforts should the Commission consider to improve supply chain security to safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure (under Commission jurisdiction) from persistent and sophisticated threats?  How can industry, NERC and the Commission assess if the reliability and security risks are adequately mitigated?  Are the current Supply Chain Reliability Standards adequate to address these evolving risks?  How can existing measures be improved?  Is information sharing among supply chain partners about threats adequate to protect against these risks?  What additional support is needed to identify and mitigate known and unknown threats?
   2. Explain how approaches to ensure supply chain security for high, medium, and low impact assets differ.  Are these different approaches adequate to ensure reliability and security?
   3. Describe the impacts to industry when specific vendors are deemed restricted and what approach is appropriate to manage risks stemming from them.  For example, what impact was experienced when vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, and Kaspersky were identified by the U.S. government as supply chain risks?

Panelists

1. Ben Miller, Vice President, Services and R&D, Dragos Inc. | Presentation
2. Robert Kolasky, Director, National Risk Management Center, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) | Presentation
3. Puesh M. Kumar, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, U.S. Department of Energy
4. Manny Cancel, Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), NERC
5. Matthew Halvorsen, FBI, Strategic Program Manager, Supply Chain and Cyber Directorate, National Counterintelligence and Security Center 
6. Mark Fabro, President and Chief Security Scientist, Lofty Perch | Presentation
7. Tony Hall, Manager, CIP Program, Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company (LG&E and KU Energy) | Presentation
8. Ranjan Banerji, Principal Partner Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Presentation

3:30 p.m.

Break

3:45 p.m.

Panel 4: Maintaining Electric Reliability with Changing Resource Mix (60 min)

The Bulk-Power System in the United States is currently experiencing significant changes to the resource mix.  Contributing factors to these fundamental shifts in the Bulk-Power System are: (1) the increasing penetration of inverter-based resources (IBRs), including both transmission connected and distributed energy resources (DERs), and energy storage resources; and (2) the retirement of older and larger synchronous generation assets.  The new resource mix includes more diversified and distributed clean energy generation resources with many weather-dependent resources, such as variable energy resources (VERs).

Panelists will be asked to explore what specific changes, in both the planning and operations time horizons, are required to enhance the addition and participation of resources with necessary attributes (e.g., dispatchability and ramping) as the resource mix evolves to include more IBRs.  Such potential changes could encompass necessary operating characteristics of required resources, power system performance requirements, reserve product definitions and reserve holding obligations, and coordinating planning and operations across larger geographic regions.

1. Given the evolving resource mix, does the current approach to how services and products are procured need to be revised in order to ensure reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System?
   1. Should the foundational performance criteria that inform decisions about the amount and type of reserves procured (e.g., procuring reserves based on the most severe single contingency), be reconsidered?  Do the present system performance indicators need to evolve?  If so, how?
      1. Has the required volume of the operating reserves evolved in recent years?  For example, to account for the behavior of IBR?  If so, how?
      2. Do the present performance requirements for a balancing authority reflect the characteristics of the current resource mix?
2. Should new services or products be considered in order to ensure reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System?  If yes, what new services and products should be considered?
3. In addition to current initiatives, what further actions should NERC take to ensure robust integration of future generation of IBRs into the power system?  Examples of such action areas include enhanced understanding of the impact of IBRs on power system performance, functionality improvements and grid forming IBRs, modeling and coordination of transmission and distribution connected IBRs.  Are there complementary initiatives in industry or at the state level, and when are they projected to be completed?
4. Do DERs and energy storage resources have attributes that can be leveraged to help with system reliability as a result of resource variability challenges of increasing VERs, both in the planning and operational time horizons?  If so, how?
5. Would further regional coordination of planning and operations among balancing authorities in a day-ahead or longer timeframe be beneficial to improve electric reliability and to better position the grid to manage real-time resource variability?
   1. What are the opportunities for better coordination of planning and operations among and between RTOs/ISOs and non-RTO/ISO regions to help manage electric reliability and real-time resource variability in light of the changing resource mix?  Which opportunities represent “low-hanging fruit” for improving coordination?  How can these changes be implemented?
   2. Have real-time imbalance markets (e.g., Energy Imbalance Market, Western Energy Imbalance Service) helped improve electric reliability and better positioned the grid to manage real-time resource variability in areas outside of organized markets?  How can this be improved?

Panelists:

1. Commissioner Kristine Raper (Idaho) on behalf of the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (WIRAB) | Presentation
2. Mark Rothleder, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, CAISO | Presentation
3. Frank Afranji, President, Northwest Power Pool  | Presentation
4. Aleksi Paaso, Director, Distribution Planning, Smart Grid and Innovation, ComEd on behalf of IEEE 
5. Mark Ahlstrom, Vice President, Renewable Energy Policy, NextEra Energy Resources & NextEra Analytics, Inc. | Presentation
6. Debbie Lew, Associate Director, Energy Systems Integration Group | Presentation

4:45 p.m.

Closing Comments (Chairman Glick and Commissioners)