By Rich Heidorn Jr.

FERC has adopted the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities as mandatory requirements, saying they are “necessary to increase the efficiency of the wholesale electric power grid.”

The commission approved the rulemaking at its Jan. 23 open meeting, but the order was not posted until Tuesday, following a review by the Office of Management and Budget (RM05-5-025, et al.).

FERC proposed adoption of Version 003.2 in May 2019 after its approval by NAESB’s Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ). (See FERC Proposes Adopting NAESB Standards.)

The standards reflect changes from WEQ Version 003.1, which were the subject of an earlier Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that FERC never completed. The commission said it will help industry achieve efficiencies by streamlining utility business and transactional processes.

It includes common nomenclature for terms; the business practices for cutting transmission service during a transmission loading relief event; the cybersecurity framework and transaction processing requirements for parties making transactions over a transmission provider’s OASIS or e-Tagging system; a framework for transparency and accountability of demand response measurement and verification; and reflects modifications to the NERC reliability standards, including dynamic tagging. It incorporates the WEQ-022 Electric Industry Registry Business Practice Standards, which replace the NERC Transmission System Information Networks as the tool used for electronic tagging.

“These practices will ensure that potential customers of open access transmission service receive access to information that will enable them to obtain transmission service on a nondiscriminatory basis and will assist the commission in maintaining a safe and reliable infrastructure and also will assure the reliability of the interstate transmission grid,” FERC said.

NAESB’s voluntary standards become mandatory for FERC-regulated public utilities after they are incorporated into the commission’s regulations. The rule requires public utilities and entities with reciprocity tariffs to modify their open access transmission tariffs to include the WEQ standards that FERC incorporated by reference.

The rule updates NAESB’s Smart Grid Standards (WEQ-018 and WEQ-019). The commission declined to incorporate by reference some smart grid portions of WEQ-018 and WEQ-019 that it has already adopted as nonmandatory guidance (Order 676-H).

AFC/ATC Standards

FERC also declined to incorporate the WEQ-023 Modeling Business Practice Standards in its entirety, which are the subject of a separate proceeding.

NAESB developed WEQ-023 after NERC asked it in 2014 to consider adopting standards covering the commercial and business aspects of the MOD standards proposed for retirement. WEQ-023 set out the requirements for calculating available flowgate capability (AFC) and available transfer capability (ATC) and adds two new requirements not previously included in the NERC reliability standards regarding contract path management.

NERC proposed replacing its six MOD A standards with standard MOD-001-2, focused exclusively on the reliability aspects of ATC and AFC.

The commission declined to incorporate the standard because it is still considering NERC’s proposed retirement of its ATC-related reliability standards (RM14-7) and is considering policies on the calculation and transparency of ATC (AD15-5).

Time-error Correction

The commission rejected the proposal to retire Time Error Correction Business Practice Standards, the subject of a separate NOPR, saying NAESB had not “adequately supported” it.

The commission said NAESB failed to justify retiring time-error correction as a business standard, saying the only support provided for its retirement is that NERC retired the corresponding reliability standard as unnecessary. FERC cited “unrebutted” comments noting “a continued need for, and possibly expansion, of such standards.”

“NOPR commenters provide significant evidence that time-error correction remains an important business practice that requires robust and meaningful business practice standards. Moreover, NERC continues to provide reliability coordinators serving as time monitors in the North American interconnections with a time-monitoring reference document that specifies how manual time-error corrections are to be implemented if needed and outlines procedural responsibilities assigned to the time monitor.”

The commission said public utilities should work through the NAESB business practices development processes to revisit the issue of whether the standards should be retained or revised.

Other Departures

The commission also declined to incorporate by reference into its regulations the:

• Standards of Conduct for Electric Transmission Providers (WEQ-009), which NAESB has eliminated as duplicative of commission’s regulations;
• Contracts Related Standards (WEQ-010), which set model contracts for the wholesale electric industry which are not mandatory; and
• WEQ/WGQ eTariff Related Standards (WEQ-014), which provide an implementation guide for the submission of electronic tariff filings to the commission, which are governed by the commission’s eTariff regulations.