The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission tentatively approved a rule to protect the grid against physical threats last week after ordering changes to allow the commission to overrule transmission operators’ definition of “critical” facilities.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (RM14-15) said the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s draft “largely satisfies” the commission’s March 7 order, which called for developing the standard in an unusually short three months. The order, which was issued under pressure from members of Congress alarmed by the 2013 sabotage of a Pacific Gas and Electric substation.
It will require transmission owners and operators to provide protection for “critical” substations, but it allows each utility to determine what substations are critical.
Veto Rights
The commission ordered NERC to change the rules to allow “applicable governmental authorities” — including FERC, other federal agencies and Canadian provinces — to add or subtract facilities from an entity’s list of critical facilities. “It’s not something we expect to happen frequently but it’s authority that we thought we should have,” acting FERC Chair Cheryl LaFleur said Thursday.
Transmission operators will be required to have their critical facility lists reviewed by third parties; TOs that reject third-party recommendations would be noncompliant unless they provide a “written, technically justifiable” reason for doing so.
The commission also ordered NERC to eliminate references to “widespread” instability, saying the phrase “could, depending on the meaning of `widespread,’ narrow the scope [and number] of identified critical facilities under the proposed Reliability Standard beyond what was contemplated in the March 7 Order.”
It ordered NERC to submit an informational filing after one year evaluating resiliency measures for recovering from a loss of critical facilities.
The commission accepted NERC’s justification for excluding generator owners and operators from the rule, agreeing that a generation facility “does not have the same critical functionality as certain transmission stations and transmission substations due to the limited size of generating plants, the availability of other generation capacity connected to the grid and planned resilience of the transmission system to react to the loss of a generation facility.”
However, it required NERC to do a second informational filing to address whether “high impact” control centers for generators and other non-transmission entities should be covered by the rule.
Reliability Standard CIP-006-5 (Cyber Security—Physical Security of BES Cyber Systems) already requires primary and backup control centers of reliability coordinators, balancing authorities and generator operators to implement some physical security protections, including restrictions on physical access. But the commission said the existing rule “may not be sufficient to `deter, detect, delay, assess, communicate and respond to potential threats and vulnerabilities’” and does not require an unaffiliated third-party review as in the proposed standard.
Rejecting Sabotage Rule Not an Option
NERC stakeholders approved the draft rule in April despite criticism by some that the standard was rushed and poorly defined. (See Grid Security Rules Win NERC Stakeholder OK Despite Criticism.)
Commissioner Tony Clark acknowledged the criticism Thursday but said the standard was “a very solid first step” and that rejecting it was not an option.
“Some have noted that the proposed standard would not provide enough visibility across the interconnection given that the identification of facilities would be done as a `bottom-up’ exercise. I believe there is a grain of truth in those concerns,” he said in a statement issued after the commission meeting.
“I encourage all stakeholders to view this as an iterative process that will continue to be improved. I view our proposed modifications and informational filings as avenues for further discussion and development to ensure that total grid awareness is considered when selecting assets to be further protected by enhanced physical security.”
Comments on the standard will be due 45 days after publication in the Federal Register, with reply comments due 15 days after that.
“I just would plead with folks to be rational,” said Commissioner John Norris, who had expressed concern that the expedited deadline and the commission’s ex-parte rules would inhibit the development of intelligent rules. (See FERC Orders Rules on Grid’s Physical Security.) “We can’t barricade our way out of this.”
Other Standards OK’d
The commission also gave preliminary approval to the Protection System Maintenance Reliability Standard (RM14-8), which requires applicable entities to include certain autoreclosing relays as part of their protection system maintenance programs.
The NOPR requires NERC to submit a report in two years based on actual performance data and simulated system conditions from planning assessments to recommend whether the standard is covering all relays necessary to ensure reliability. It also requires NERC to amend the standard to include maintenance and testing of supervisory devices associated with applicable relays.
FERC also gave final approval to the Generator Relay Loadability reliability standard and revisions to the Transmission Relay Loadability standards (RM13-19-000 and RM14-3-000). The commission said the generator relay standard will reduce the likelihood of premature or unnecessary tripping of generators during system disturbances. The commission ordered revisions to the current standard governing transmission relay loadability to prevent “compliance overlap” by eliminating potential inconsistencies between the two standards.
