NERC has filed a suite of reliability standards providing model validation and data sharing requirements for inverter-based resources with FERC, in the second tranche of standards aimed at addressing the commission’s Order 901.
Order 901, issued in October 2023, directed the ERO to develop rules addressing IBR data sharing, model validation, planning and operational studies, and performance standards, and submit them to the commission in three tranches by Nov. 4 over each of the next three years. The new standards were adopted by NERC’s Board of Trustees Oct. 31 in an action without a meeting.
NERC assigned the standards to three projects. The standard development team for Project 2022-02 (Uniform modeling framework for IBRs) worked on:
MOD-026-2 (Verification and validation of dynamic models and data) was developed under Project 2020-06 (Verifications of models and data for generators), while MOD-033-3 (Steady-state and dynamic system model validation) was a product of Project 2021-01 (System model validation with IBRs). Each project’s standards were submitted in a separate docket.
The Project 2022-02 standards (RD26-1) will “advance the reliability of the [electric grid] by establishing requirements addressing the provision of [IBR] model data and parameters,” NERC said in its filing. MOD-032-2 will require planning coordinators (PCs) and transmission planners to specify the data needed to model IBRs for planning purposes and identify entities responsible for providing such data, along with requiring similar data on aggregated distributed energy resources.
IRO-010-6 and TOP-003-8 will “reinforce” requirements for reliability coordinators, transmission operators and balancing authorities to request IBR-specific data and parameters in their data specifications. Overall, the three standards will “establish the uniform framework for modeling IBRs contemplated by the commission in Order 901 … for conducting system studies.”
MOD-033-3 includes requirements for PCs to have a documented process for validating models applying to their portions of the electric system. The process must include performance comparison between actual system behavior and the steady-state and dynamic models of the system.
PCs must implement guidelines to identify and correct errors or inaccuracies between simulation results and actual behavior, with the goal of ensuring “that IBRs and DERs are included in system-level model validation … and [that] these inclusions are consistent with” the modeling data requirements in MOD-032-2.
Finally, MOD-026-2 requires generator owners and transmission owners to perform model validation and model verification of positive sequence dynamic and electromagnetic transient models provided to their TPs. NERC said these changes “will result in more accurate IBR models than [the] historic performance” of utilities’ prior modeling practices.
NERC’s Standards Committee has voted to move forward with the final tranche of Order 901 standards, with members approving two standard authorization requests covering operational and planning studies at their Aug. 20 meeting. (See NERC Standards Committee Tackles Final Order 901 Tranche.) The standards will be due Nov. 4, 2026.
