NERC’s Standards Committee is accepting nominations through Oct. 15 to replace nine members who will depart at the end of the year, as well as to fill three spots that are currently vacant.
The Standards Committee comprises the chair and vice chair, along with two representatives from each of 10 industry segments, with memberships staggered so that half of the representatives are replaced each year. This year’s departing members are:
- Segment 1, transmission owners: Sean Bodkin, Dominion Energy;
- Segment 2, RTOs and ISOs: Charles Yeung, SPP;
- Segment 3, load-serving entities: Linn Oelker, LG&E and KU;
- Segment 4, transmission-dependent utilities: Barry Lawson, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association;
- Segment 5, electric generators: William Winters, Consolidated Edison;
- Segment 6, electricity brokers, aggregators and marketers: Rebecca Darrah, ACES Power;
- Segment 7, large electricity end users: Venona Greaff, Occidental Chemical;
- Segment 8, small electricity users: David Kiguel, independent; and
- Segment 10, regional reliability organizations and regional entities: Steven Rueckert, WECC.
In addition, the committee is looking to fill vacancies for the term that ends December 2021 in segments 4 and 7, so nominations will be accepted for these spots as well. In the election, the candidates in those segments with the most votes will be given their choice of terms, with the other term going to the runners-up.
Nominations are also being accepted for Segment 9 (Federal, state and provincial regulatory or other government entities). Currently the segment is only represented by Ajinkya Rohankar of Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, whose term ends in December 2021.
The committee is required to have at least two members from Canada — currently Kiguel and Robert Blohm of Keen Resources, who will leave at the end of 2021. If the regular election does not result in the seating of another Canadian representative, then the Canadian candidate who receives the most votes in their segment will be named as an additional member.
Nominees may be submitted by anyone, with the election to be conducted “shortly after the nomination period is closed.” Industry segments that intend to use a special procedure to elect their representatives must inform the committee by Oct. 15.
Special Election to Fill RSTC Seat
The Reliability and Security Technical Committee is also holding a special election to fill a vacancy in Sector 8 (Large end-use electricity customers). The nominating period ran from Aug. 28 to Sept. 18, with Travis Fisher, president and CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON), and Thomas Siegrist, a consulting engineer with Stone Mattheis Xenopoulos & Brew, making the final ballot. Voting began on Sept. 21 and will end at midnight Oct. 5.
Like the Standards Committee’s, members on the RSTC serve staggered two-year terms. Occidental’s Greaff (2020-2022) and former ELCON CEO John P. Hughes (2020-2023) were elected to represent Sector 8 in January; NERC has not identified which is leaving. (See Nominations Close for At-Large RSTC Members.) The winner of the special election will serve out the departing member’s remaining term.
