NERC’s Standards Committee members had many questions about organizational changes that will likely lead to their committee’s disbanding, with leaders promising answers as soon as they are available.
The SC gathered for its monthly conference call Feb. 18, a week after NERC’s quarterly Board of Trustees meeting in Savannah, Ga., where trustees agreed to adopt the final recommendations of the Modernization of Standards Processes and Procedures Task Force (MSPPTF). (See NERC Board Accepts MSPPTF Recommendations.)
Under the task force’s recommendations, the Reliability and Security Technical Committee would conduct a biannual review of standard initiation requests to determine whether a new standard was needed. Standard proposals would be handed to a new subcommittee of the Reliability Issues Steering Committee, which would consult with industry to determine a plan for development.
A new pool of on-staff subject matter experts would work with NERC staff to develop a draft standard, which would be posted for stakeholder comment and then revised by a project team. Industry stakeholders would then vote on the standard in a confirmation ballot.
Chair Todd Bennett of Associated Electric Cooperative, who was at the board meeting, discussed with SC members what he knew of NERC’s future steps, but acknowledged that beyond the goal of having the new process in place by the end of 2027, few details of the implementation plan had been worked out. He confirmed that this goal included “sunsetting” the SC and revising the charters of the RSTC and RISC, and said the two processes would likely run side-by-side while NERC staff worked out the kinks.
Jennie Wike of Tacoma Public Utilities asked when the SME pool would be formed and if there would be any impacts to existing standard drafting teams. NERC Manager of Standards Development Alison Oswald said there were “quite a few steps to put in place before that can happen.”
Vicki O’Leary of Eversource then observed that half the SC members’ terms will expire at the end of 2026, and asked whether NERC would hold an election as usual to fill those vacancies. Oswald said NERC “had not specifically thought about” that question but said she “could foresee that we would continue on the normal path as is.”
Bennett added that his preference depended on the timeline for the SC’s disbandment. If the committee is dissolved in early 2027, he said, he would prefer “just to keep the same committee … and engaged members that we have.” But if it will last longer, he said it might be better to hold formal elections.
Standards Actions
Along with the MSPPTF updates, the committee also had a full slate of standards actions to consider.
A proposal to supplement the SDT for Project 2023-09 (Risk management for third-party cloud services) led the agenda. Manager of Standards Development Jordan Mallory explained that the project — which NERC considers high priority “due to increasing threats to the electric system” — recently lost three of the original 13 SDT members.
Although NERC typically considers 10 members to be sufficient for an SDT, Mallory said because the project is expected to modify a large number of Critical Infrastructure Protection standards, the team believes it will need a larger-than-usual number of members.
NERC staff recommended that the SC approve the solicitation of nominees from industry to bring the team back to full strength. Members approved the proposal unanimously.
Another proposal to replace three departing SDT members — this time for Project 2022-05 (Modifications to CIP-008 reporting threshold) — also gained approval from SC members, though not without some discussion. In this case, NERC had already processed 10 nominations from industry and chosen three candidates to recommend to the committee for approval.
Keith Jonassen of ISO-NE suggested approving one of the remaining nominees as well, arguing that the individual, who was not identified by name during the meeting would add needed balance to the team by representing ISOs and RTOs. Mallory replied that NERC felt the three chosen “were the top contenders,” adding that in any case, the person in question had expressed a lack of interest in serving on the team. Jonassen’s motion to add the extra nominee was rejected and the original slate passed.
Members also approved proposals to draft Canadian-specific revisions to NERC’s cold weather standard EOP-012-3 (Extreme cold weather preparedness and operations), to modify PRC-029-1 (Frequency and voltage ride-through requirements for inverter-based resources) and to update requirements for supply chain risk management.
