NERC’s Standards Committee approved a revised charter and standard authorization requests (SARs) for its MOD and PRC rules in its year-end meeting Wednesday.

Reactive Power Measurements

The committee accepted SARs for Project 2021-01, which is considering changes to MOD-025 (Modeling, Data, and Analysis) and PRC-019 (Protection and Control).

The Power Plant Modelling and Verification Task Force (PPMVTF) developed a SAR to revise MOD-025-2 to address problems with the verification and data reporting of generator active and reactive power capability. The task force said the existing standard has rarely produced data suitable for planning models although that is its purpose.

Most testing cases are undermined by limits within the plant or system operating conditions that prohibit the generating resource from reaching its “composite capability curve.” The standard drafting team hopes to correct these issues so that equipment owners can produce suitable and accurate data during verification activities.

PRC-019-2 seeks to addresses miscoordination among generator capability, control systems, and protection functions, but does not sufficiently outline the requirements for non-synchronous generation, a problem identified by the System Protection and Control Subcommittee (SPCS). The SAR seeks to revise the standard to apply to all generation types.

The Planning Committee endorsed a third SAR in December 2019 concerning the potential risk of increasing amounts of reactive power being supplied by nonsynchronous sources. But the SAR drafting team revised and consolidated the three SARs into two.

Marty Hostler of Northern California Power Agency questioned why the SAR wasn’t reposted after the drafting team made changes in response to industry comments. “I saw a lot of negative comments,” he said. “And I’m just curious why it hasn’t gone out again for additional commenting after all the adjustments were made?”

NERC Senior Standards Developer Latrice Harkness said NERC rules don’t require reposting the SAR after it has been reviewed by the SAR drafting team. “The comments for consideration … were posted back in November for review,” she said. “The team has worked to consider those comments.”

Transmission Relay Loadability

The committee also approved a SAR for Project 2021-05 that was submitted by the System Protection and Control Working Group to modify PRC-023 to address potential reliability issues resulting from confusion regarding the standard.

The standard is intended to ensure protective relays are set so they do not trip unnecessarily during heavy loading conditions while still being capable of detecting all fault conditions.

The SAR said some entities have disabled their power swing blocking (PSB) relays because of internal conflicts within the standard, which could lead to tripping during stable power swings. The SAR calls for removing or modifying Requirement R2 “because it has been interpreted to restrict the setting of PSB elements making determination of appropriate settings more difficult and making compliance with PRC-026 more difficult.”

Engineer Philip Winston questioned why the SAR continues to list the System Protection and Control Working Group as the sponsor even though it was changed after the working group submitted it.

“I’m a little concerned over the fact that this revision to the … SAR has never gone back to the [working group]. So to show it that they are sponsoring it, in my opinion, is incorrect,” he said. “And I have confirmed that with the chair of the [working group] that he has not been informed of the changes that have been made.”

“Once a SAR is submitted to the Standards Committee, it actually becomes part of the Standards Committee and the process there,” said Howard Gugel, NERC’s vice president of engineering and standards. “We do not typically go back to the original submitter and ask that submitter to review any changes that were done based on public comments.… That has been a common practice for us.

“In other words,” Gugel said, “the submitter doesn’t own the SAR anymore. It’s actually owned by the Standards Committee.”

The committee approved the SAR with the notation that it was “as revised by the SAR drafting team based on comments.”

Committee Charter Approved

The committee also approved a revised committee charter in response to a charge from the NERC board in November that it further amend the document — last updated in 2019 — to ensure clarity about its role and that it has the “agility” to respond to urgent reliability concerns.

Committee Chair Amy Casuscelli of Xcel Energy said the changes include additional language to clarify the committee’s role as a “process committee,” additional references and linkages to the Standard Processes Manual section of the Rules of Procedure, and a section on waivers to highlight the committee’s “ability to act with agility in the face of urgent need.”

The revised charter states that the committee “shall provide oversight of the reliability standards development process to ensure stakeholder interests are fairly represented” but that it “shall not under any circumstance change the substance of a draft or approved reliability standard.”

It also includes a new section allowing the committee to waive some steps in the Standard Processes Manual if needed to act quickly to meet “a time constrained regulatory directive” or meet “an urgent reliability issue.”

Call for Volunteers

NERC Board Member Jim Piro ended the meeting by thanking the committee for its work in 2021.

“It’s been a very busy year, and I’ve been really impressed with the attention to detail that the committee takes in doing their work,” he said. “And I will tell you that the work is not going to end … There’s a lot of important issues ahead of us in terms of looking at the changing grid as it decarbonizes.”

Piro acknowledged concerns about “industry fatigue” and the need to get resources from the industry to work on future SARs.

Charles Yeung, executive director of interregional affairs for SPP, and chair of the Project Management and Oversight Subcommittee, echoed Piro’s concern, saying the (PMOS) will be seeking new members in 2022.

“We had 11 members on PMOS. … Three of those 11 members did not re-up their membership for the next year, and we did not get any new nominations this year,” said Yeung. “… So, I invite anyone on the committee or folks that you know from your organizations to nominate.”

Casuscelli reappointed Michael Brytowski, of Great River Energy, as vice chair of the PMOS.