NERC OKs Utilities’ Transfer to ReliabilityFirst

CALGARY, Alberta — The NERC Board of Trustees last week approved Wisconsin Public Service Corp.’s (WPSC) and Upper Michigan Energy Resources’ requests to move to ReliabilityFirst from ​Midwest Reliability Organization. NERC staff determined the transfer of the companies’ facilities would have a negligible impact on other grid users and operators, noting that the two utilities’ facilities have more geographic and electrical boundaries with RF than MRO.

Wisconsin Electric Power Co. acquired WPSC in 2015 and established UMERC as a new company in 2017. It applied for the registration transfer request in December.

The board also approved the 2019 Electric Reliability Organization enterprise business plan and budget and the budgets for the seven Regional Entities; approved a requirement that transmission and generation owners provide NERC with their geomagnetic monitoring data to support ongoing research and analysis of geomagnetic disturbance risks; and adopted three reliability standards:

— Tom Kleckner