NERC

On December 19, 2024, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to approve the addition of the newly defined term “Ride-through” to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Glossary of Terms and to approve the proposed Protection and Control (PRC) Reliability Standards PRC-024-4 (Frequency and Voltage Protection Settings for Synchronous Generators, Type 1 and 2 Wind Resources, and Synchronous Condensers) and PRC-029-1 (Frequency and Voltage Ride-through Requirements for Inverter-Based Resources (IBR)). According to FERC, these reliability standards are intended to address reliability gaps associated with IBRs tripping or entering momentary cessation in aggregate. The new rules will ensure that IBRs are able to “ride through” frequency and voltage excursions, such as faults on the transmission or sub-transmission system. In the NOPR, FERC seeks comments on the proposed rules and the need for informational filings that would help FERC analyze the impact of proposed exemptions in the rules for certain IBRs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) recently approved the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) request to expand registration and compliance requirements to inverter-based resources (“IBRs”) that meet or exceed 20 MVA and are interconnected at or above 60 kV.  This will impact certain wind, solar, battery, and fuel cell facilities that were previously too small to be required to register with NERC.

NERC recently filed rule changes with FERC that propose to significantly expand NERC registration and compliance requirements to inverter based resources, such as renewable energy and battery facilities, that historically were too small to be subject to such requirements.  NERC’s proposed rule changes are one of the latest developments in NERC’s multi-year effort to address the “reliability gap” associated with these types of resources.

On February 16, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order approving two extreme cold weather reliability standards: EOP-011-3 (Emergency Operations) and EOP-012-1 (Extreme Cold Weather Preparedness and Operations) proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”), subject to modification.[1] The approved Reliability Standards help to maintain reliable operation of the Bulk Power System by ensuring that enough generating units will be available during a cold weather event. According to FERC, the proposed Reliability Standards EOP-011-3 and EOP-012-1 are improvements to the existing Reliability Standards, but NERC must address additional concerns such as ambiguity, applicability, and compliance timelines. NERC is directed to submit modifications within twelve months.

As the cold weather season approaches, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) are taking action to prevent a repeat of the devastating electric power outages that rocked Texas and the Midwest at the beginning of this year.

In February 2021, electric power generators and millions of customers…