NERC’s Member Representatives Committee (MRC) on Thursday unanimously elected Jane Allen to fill one of two open seats on the organization’s Board of Trustees.

Allen has a long experience in the energy industry, having served in various posts in Deloitte Canada’s energy and resources division from 1996 to 2017, as well as on the management committee and board of directors. Upon leaving Deloitte, Allen joined Hydro One, where she worked as senior vice president for strategy and innovation from 2017 to 2019. She has also served on the boards of the Energy Council of Canada and Oakville Hydro.

The election means the board now has two Canadian trustees again, with Allen joining current Trustee Colleen Sidford, who has been the sole representative from Canada since the departures of David Goulding and Fred Gorbet earlier this year. (See “Search for Canadian Trustee,” Former Con Ed Exec to Lead E–ISAC.) The board officially began its search for new trustees at its February meeting, with priority given to finding a Canadian representative because NERC is legally required to have at least two Canadian trustees. (See “Search Begins for New Board Members,” NERC MRC Briefs: Feb. 5, 2020.)

Nominating Committee Chair Kenneth Defontes told the MRC the committee will now move to finding a replacement for Jan Schori, who will complete her 12th year as trustee this year, making her ineligible for another term. Working with executive search firm Russell Reynolds, the committee will narrow its “long and robust” initial list of candidates to a shortlist by October, with interviews scheduled for Nov. 2-3. As with the Canadian search, all interviews will be conducted virtually.

NERC Bylaw Revisions Move to FERC

NERC’s management submitted revisions to the organization’s bylaws relating to membership structure and composition of the MRC, along with criteria for excluding potential independent NERC trustees. Following their unanimous approval by the MRC and board, the revisions will now be submitted to FERC for approval.

The most significant impact of the revisions is the creation of an additional sector to be represented at the MRC. This new “Associate” sector would accommodate candidates that do not fall into an existing industry sector, which NERC’s bylaws currently define as “a group of members that are [bulk power system] owners, operators, users or other persons and entities with substantially similar interests, including governmental entities.”

The creation of the new category is intended to address a growing tension between the description of NERC’s membership as open to anyone with “an interest in the reliable operations of the BPS” and the requirement that members group themselves into one of the defined sectors. According to NERC management, some sectors have effectively been diluted by the addition of members that don’t necessarily belong; for example, the Small End-Use Electricity Customer sector has “become a catchall for candidates … that do not fit elsewhere.”

Under the revised bylaws, membership language regarding most sectors would be changed to allow a majority of members to veto an entity’s inclusion in their sector. Entities that do not meet a sector definition would still be eligible to become members in the Associate sector, with all the rights and duties of other sectors except the right to nominate and elect MRC representatives. Associate sector members could also serve as representatives and proxies of other sectors on the MRC.

Additional sector-related updates would eliminate the voting representation of regional entities on the MRC in light of their “unique role in working with NERC to fulfill a common mission,” and clarify that the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council will participate in the same sector as RTOs and ISOs, rather than the Small End-Use sector.

The revised bylaws also allow NERC officers who are not also NERC employees to serve as independent directors of the organization, a change chiefly aimed at clarifying the status of the board chair and vice chair. A set of minor updates bring the organization in line with New Jersey corporate law regarding remote attendance at meetings and actions taken without approval by the MRC and board, and remove outdated or inoperative language.

Budget, ROP, Standards Actions

The board voted unanimously to approve the 2021 business plans and budgets of NERC and the REs, to renew NERC’s $4 million unsecured line of credit with PNC Bank and to accept the organization’s second-quarter unaudited financial statements.

Board Chair Roy Thilly praised the budget, which aims to keep spending and assessment flat in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a “major action” and said the board was “very pleased” with the work of the Finance and Audit Committee. But he reminded attendees to prepare for the increased budgets projected for 2022 and 2023. (See NERC: Post-COVID Budget Rises Likely.)

“We need to make sure we have the resources to meet our mission, which is an incredibly important mission, as has been reinforced by the pandemic and the dependence on reliable electricity,” Thilly said.

Also receiving unanimous approval were NERC’s proposed revisions to its Rules of Procedure (ROP), ordered by FERC in response to the ERO’s five-year performance assessment. (See NERC Wins Another 5 Years as ERO.) The updates, due to FERC by Sept. 28, apply to section 1003 of the ROP, covering NERC’s infrastructure security program — particularly the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) — and its sanction guidelines in Appendix 4B. (See NERC Seeks Comments on Proposed ROP Changes.)

The board also agreed to modify WECC’s regional variance for reliability standard PRC-006-4, governing underfrequency load shedding, updating the preamble to indicate requirements R14 and R15 do not apply in the Western Interconnection, clarifying the meaning of the term “planning coordinator” in the interconnection and aligning the variance with NERC’s current drafting conventions.

Finally, the trustees also approved the Northeast Power Coordinating Council’s revisions to its regional standard processes manual. The changes are primarily concerned with removing and clarifying outdated language and establishing closer alignment with NERC’s standard processes manual.

November Meeting Goes Web-only

After previously deferring a decision on the final board and MRC meetings of the year, Thilly confirmed that they will be held virtually rather than in Atlanta as originally planned because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (See “COVID-19 Prompts Further Meeting Changes,” NERC Board of Trustees/MRC Briefs: May 14, 2020.) The meetings are scheduled for Nov. 4-5, with the customary pre-meeting and informational webinar planned for Oct. 7.

While the February board and MRC meetings are, for the moment, still scheduled to be held in Manhattan Beach, Calif., as normal, Thilly admitted that the board considers it “quite unlikely” the gatherings will be held in person. Several replacement options are under consideration, such as another all-online gathering, or a hybrid structure where trustees, and potentially the MRC, would meet behind closed doors with observers listening remotely.

“We’re learning continually about the [WebEx] platform and its capabilities, so hopefully it will be a continuous improvement as we move through,” Thilly said. “I know that we all miss meeting together in person, and while these meetings, with staff’s hard work, are going well, it is a challenge, and we miss the relationship-building and time to talk that we have when we meet in person. So we hope to get there as soon as possible.”