FERC-725E, (Final Rule for RM19-20) Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Western Electric Coordinating Council

In March 2018, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued four joint petitions to retire and modify WECC regional Reliability Standards. RD18-2. On March 8 2018, NERC and WECC filed a joint petition in Docket No. RD18-2-000 requesting Commission approval of: • regional Reliability Standard BAL-004-WECC-3 (Automatic Time Error Correction), and • the retirement of existing regional Reliability Standard BAL-004-WECC-2. The joint petition in Docket No. RD18-2-000 states: “Regional Reliability Standard BAL-004-WECC-3 seeks to maintain Interconnection frequency and to ensure that Time Error Corrections and Primary Inadvertent Interchange (“PII”) payback are effectively conducted in a manner that does not adversely affect the reliability of the [Western] Interconnection.” The proposed modifications to the standard focus on the entities using a common tool. All other proposed changes are for clarification. The Commission is not changing the reporting requirements, nor is it modifying the burden, cost or respondents with this collection, and sees this as a non-material or non-substantive change to the FERC-725E information collection. RD18-5. On March 16, 2018, NERC and WECC filed a joint petition in Docket No. RD18-5-000 requesting Commission approval of: • regional Reliability Standard FAC-501-WECC-2 (Transmission Maintenance), and • the retirement of existing regional Reliability Standard FAC-501-WECC-1. The joint petition in Docket No. RD18-5-000 states: “The purpose of FAC-501-WECC-2 is to ensure the Transmission Owner of a transmission path identified in the table titled “Major WECC Transfer Paths in the Bulk Electric System” (“WECC Transfer Path Table” or “Table”), including associated facilities, has a Transmission Maintenance and Inspection Plan (“TMIP”) and performs and documents maintenance and inspection activities in accordance with the TMIP.” The modifications to the existing standard are for clarification of the transmission owner’s obligations and to directly incorporate the list of applicable transmission paths. This list is currently posted on the WECC website and has not changed. The Commission is not changing reporting requirements nor is it modifying the burden, cost or respondents with this collection, and sees this as a non-material or non-substantive change to the FERC-725E information collection. RD18-1. On March 7, 2018, NERC (and WECC) filed a joint petition in Docket No. RD18-1-000 requesting Commission approval to retire the WECC regional Reliability Standard VAR-002-WECC-2 (Automatic Voltage Regulators). According to the petition, the purpose of the proposed retirement is based on WECC’s experience with regional Reliability Standard VAR-002-WECC-2 which has shown that the reliability-related issues addressed in the regional standard are adequately addressed by the continent-wide voltage and reactive (“VAR”) Reliability Standards and that retention of the regional standard would not provide additional benefits for reliability. RD18-3. Also, on March 9, 2018, NERC (and WECC) filed a joint petition in Docket No. RD18-3-000 requesting Commission approval to retire the WECC regional Reliability Standard PRC-004-WECC-2 (Protection System and Remedial Action Scheme Misoperation). The purpose of the proposed retirement is based on NERC and WECC’s belief that since the initial development of this regional standard, other continent-wide Reliability Standards have been developed that have made the requirements of this regional Reliability Standard redundant and no longer necessary for reliability in the Western Interconnection.

The latest form for FERC-725E, (Final Rule for RM19-20) Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Western Electric Coordinating Council expires 2021-09-30 and can be found here.