MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — NERC’s Board of Trustees approved the final slate of members for the new Reliability and Security Technical Committee (RSTC), created last year to replace the Planning, Operating and Critical Infrastructure Protection committees. (See NERC Board OKs Committees Merger.) The committee plans to hold its first meeting next month to elect the executive committee.

The last stage of nominations closed with the acceptance of the 10 at-large members, who will join RSTC Chairman Greg Ford, Vice Chair David Zwergel, and the 22 sector representatives chosen in previous months. (See Nominations Close for At-Large RSTC Members.)

• Patrick Doyle, Hydro-Québec (2020-2023)
• David Jacobson, Manitoba Hydro (2020-2023)
• Sandra Ellis, Pacific Gas and Electric (2020-2023)
• Rich Hydzik, Avista (2020-2023)
• Todd Lucas, Southern Co. (2020-2023)
• Wayne Guttormson, SaskPower (2020-2022)
• Lloyd Linke, Western Area Power Administration’s Upper Great Plains Region (2020-2022)
• Brian Evans-Mongeon, Utility Services Inc. (2020-2022)
• Jeff Harrison, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (2020-2022)
• Peter Brandien, ISO-NE (2020-2022)

Like the sector representatives, half the initial slate of at-large members will serve two-year terms expiring in 2022, while the rest will serve three-year terms ending in 2023. After the inaugural terms, future members will serve for two years, expiring in alternating years.

Following the election of the executive committee, the RSTC will continue to develop its transition plan. The committee will hold its first regular meeting in June, which will coincide with the final meetings of the retiring committees.

DeFontes Elected as Vice Chair

The board elected Kenneth W. DeFontes Jr. as vice chair and chair-elect, replacing Janice Case, whose term expired in February, and putting him in line to succeed current Chair Roy Thilly. Jim Piro, former CEO of Portland General Electric, also joined the board for his first meeting after being appointed to replace retiring trustee Fred Gorbet at the previous day’s meeting of the Member Representatives Committee. (See related story, NERC MRC Briefs: Feb. 5, 2020.)

Standards Actions

Howard Gugel, vice president and director of engineering and standards at NERC, presented the following actions to the board, which approved all unanimously:

• Project 2017-07 — Standards Alignment with Registration. The project would update reliability standards impacted by the risk-based registration initiative, including FAC-002-3, IRO-010-3, MOD-031-3, MOD-033-2, NUC-001-4, PRC-006-4 and TOP-003-4.
• Project 2018-04 — Modifications to PRC-024-2 intended to “clarify and correct technical issues for inverter-based resources.”
• Project 2019-01 — Modifications to TPL-007-3 to require corrective action plans for supplemental geomagnetic disturbance event vulnerabilities.
• Primary frequency response in the ERCOT region — Revising BAL-001-TRE-2 to remove governor deadband and droop-setting requirements for steam turbines in a combined cycle train, and clarify the responsible entity for exclusion requests.

EMP, Supply Chain Recommendations Approved

The board also approved the strategic recommendations of the EMP Task Force, a draft of which it had accepted at last November’s meeting without endorsing the suggestions. (See Board Warily Accepts EMP Task Force Report.)

The recommendations included maintaining the EMP Task Force under the RSTC with a specific work plan dividing EMP-related tasks between it and the wider ERO Enterprise. Near-term priorities for the EMP Task Force include establishing performance expectations for the bulk power system during an EMP event and providing guidance to industry for hardening critical assets and post-event recovery. The ERO Enterprise would be expected to support additional research on the impact of EMP events and “develop tools and methods for system planners and equipment owners to use in assessing EMP impacts on the BPS.”

In addition, the board accepted the recommendation of NERC staff to modify supply chain cybersecurity standards to include low-impact cyber systems with remote electronic access connectivity. The recommendation was based on analysis of NERC’s supply chain data request last year, which found that a significant number of operators of low-impact systems allowed external third-party connectivity to such assets, potentially creating a security risk. (See Supply Chain Survey Finds Ongoing Action on Cyber Risks.)

— Holden Mann