By Rich Heidorn Jr.

FERC said last week it will require the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to provide the commission access to NERC databases in what Chairman Norman Bay said is an effort to apply “Moneyball” techniques to reliability.

The commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would give FERC access to NERC’s transmission availability data system (TADS), generating availability data system (GADS) and protection system misoperations databases (RM15-25).

“It takes the concept of ‘Moneyball’ to our analytics on reliability,” said Bay, referring to the best-selling book on Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane’s use of statistical analysis in evaluating baseball players.

The commission said access to the data “would inform the commission more quickly, directly and comprehensively about reliability trends or reliability gaps that might require the commission to direct [NERC] to develop new or modified reliability standards.”

TADS and GADS contain data on transmission and generation outages, respectively, including cause codes.

The protection system database collected information on about 2,000 misoperations in 2014, including causes. “Protection system misoperations have exacerbated the severity of most cascading power outages, having played a significant role in the Aug. 14, 2003, Northeast blackout,” FERC said.

“While the aggregated TADS, GADS and protection system misoperations data provided in NERC’s periodic reports afford the commission some insight into the reliability and adequacy trends identified by NERC, we believe that having direct access to the underlying data will assist the commission in its understanding of the periodic reports, thereby helping the commission to monitor causes of outages and detect emerging reliability issues,” FERC said.

FERC Micromanaging NERC?

Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur issued a concurring statement expressing concern that the proposal could be seen as micromanaging NERC. Although FERC has ordered NERC to initiate standards on geomagnetic disturbances and physical security, LaFleur said that authority should be used sparingly.

“It is important that we recognize the distinction between [FERC’s] oversight role and NERC’s primary responsibility to monitor reliability issues and propose standards to address them. Ultimately, I believe our efforts to sustain and improve the reliability of the bulk electric system are furthered by mutual trust and shared priorities between the commission and NERC,” she said.

“I understand that today’s proposal might be controversial within the NERC community. I therefore welcome comment on the proposal, including any potential issues or concerns not identified in the NOPR.”

Comments on the proposal are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The commission also gave final approval to two sets of reliability standards and preliminary approval to a third.

FERC approved reliability standards PRC-002-2, which specifies requirements for time-synchronized data for post-disturbance analysis (RM15-4), and PRC-005-4, adding sudden pressure relaying systems to the protection system maintenance rules (RM15-9).

It also approved a NOPR proposing to approve standard PRC-026-1, which would require that protective relay systems differentiate between faults and stable power swings (RM15-8).