Statement: September 16, 2010
Docket No. RR09-7-000 and AD10-14-000
"It has been a little over four years since the Commission certified NERC as the Electric Reliability Organization for the United States. Those four years have been a learning experience for NERC, industry and the Commission. In its three year assessment, NERC took a hard look at its performance and the Regional Entities' performance, and submitted a comprehensive filing detailing its findings. In doing so, NERC has identified over 120 action items it intends to implement. I applaud NERC and the Regional Entities for their diligence in continuing to improve their performance under section 215 of the Federal Power Act and am happy that we are generally approving NERC's proposals.
I also think it is important that the Commission continue the dialogue that began with our July 6 Conference. That conference provided a useful discussion of topics that concern NERC, the industry, and regulators in North America and I commit to continuing that conversion. I was pleased to hear that industry was coalescing around the idea of convening periodic technical conferences in the format of the July 6 Conference to focus on reliability issues. To that end, in this order, the Commission announces that it will hold a conference on NERC and Regional Entity reliability monitoring, enforcement, and compliance issues. We will also hold a conference in early 2011 to discuss other policy issues. We look forward to working with NERC and our international neighbors in setting the agendas for these conferences. They will provide an open and inclusive forum in which to discuss policy issues of interest to NERC, industry, and regulators. These conferences should build upon the work NERC has done to improve its performance, and will be useful in guiding continued improvement in NERC's performance as the ERO. I look forward to these conferences."