By Holden Mann

NERC has asked FERC for more time to revise its Rules of Procedure (ROP) to address concerns the commission raised in response to the ERO’s five-year performance assessment.

In an order Jan. 23, the commission accepted the assessment overall but found “that NERC should take several actions to continue improving its performance as the ERO” (RR19-7). (See NERC Wins Another 5 Years as ERO.)

The commission ordered NERC to make a compliance filing by July 21 revise its ROP to “correct any inconsistencies” in terminology regarding the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), provide more transparency in its sanction guidelines and make various improvements to its certification program.

On Friday, NERC requested an extension on the filing to Aug. 28, saying this would “ensure transparency in developing revisions to the ROP.” The organization’s internal procedures require a 45-day stakeholder comment period for proposed revisions, after which the Board of Trustees must review the revisions and comments before its next meeting. FERC’s original current deadline would give NERC until the May 13 board meeting to complete its process; postponing it would mean the board could have until the next meeting on Aug. 20, which the ERO considers “more feasible.”

NERC said it is already working on changes to the ROP regarding its registration and certification program in conjunction with regional entities, stakeholders and the Compliance and Certification Committee. Extending the deadline would allow the organization to “present a complete set of registration and certification ROP revisions, which were in development prior to the commission’s issuance of the order.”

RE Audits

FERC’s January order also required NERC to make a compliance filing by April 22 providing any audits it has conducted of the REs during the five-year period or a plan for performing them within the next 18 months.

NERC’s ROP and the regional delegation agreements it signed with the REs require it to perform “comprehensive” audits of the entities’ compliance monitoring and enforcement programs at least once every five years. But after doing five limited audits through 2010, NERC failed to mention in its 2014 or 2019 performance assessment whether it had completed any audits, FERC said. The commission noted that it rejected NERC’s attempt to eliminate the audit requirement in 2015.

The commission said if NERC prefers a different oversight process for the REs as an alternative to comprehensive audits every five years, it should detail how its plan meets Order 672.

ERO Insider asked NERC CEO Jim Robb earlier this month why the organization hadn’t audited REs in past five years.

“Well we have. We just haven’t done, every five years, a main event. We’ve been doing kind of continual oversight of the various processes,” Robb responded. “We just need to have a conversation with [FERC officials] to make sure they’re comfortable with what we’re doing.”

Rich Heidorn Jr. contributed to this article.