Responding to what they called “a time of significant dynamism,” the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced a new framework for “routine and robust communication” to manage the grid’s transition to clean energy sources.

In a memorandum of understanding, EPA and DOE identified the increasing frequency of severe weather, coupled with the adoption of renewable generation and energy storage resources, as drivers of “ongoing change” in the bulk power system. They said the changes are only likely to continue thanks to investments in decarbonization from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. (See EPA’s Becker Breaks Down $32B of Federal Funding for Decarbonization.)

“A reliable electric power system is essential to our national security, continued economic growth and the protection of public health. That’s why DOE and EPA are uniting our long-standing efforts to ensure a robust and resilient system,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release accompanying the MOU. He pledged to “support grid reliability and resiliency at every stage as [EPA] advances efforts to reduce pollution, protect public health, and deliver environmental and economic benefits for all.”   

DOE and EPA identified their roles as helping to wrangle the “robust and multilayered system” — including stakeholders such as FERC, NERC, regional entities, state public utility commissions, utilities and public interest organizations — that maintain the reliability of the North American grid. The agencies said they intend to conduct “regular and effective communication and consultation” with stakeholders “within … statutory authorities and mandates.”

According to the MOU, both EPA and DOE have created internal bodies focused on electric reliability, with key staff designated as points of contact for routine interagency communication. The agencies are planning to meet at least twice a year to discuss their respective work on reliability, in addition to holding joint meetings as needed with NERC and other stakeholders to solicit input.

The agencies said their outreach efforts would revolve around five key areas:

• Analysis, including “sharing information about modeling and analysis of electric power investments, operations,” and other topics, along with discussing additional data needed to evaluate risks;
• Engagement with entities to identify current and emerging reliability risks, tools that may be useful in protecting reliability, and actions that might help maintain reliability;
• Monitoring the BPS to identify any potential risks;
• Short-term interventions within the agencies’ statutory mandates to address immediate reliability risks; and
• Sharing information on implementation of policies and programs to protect reliability; investments in upgrades to generation, storage and distribution infrastructure; and policies that support reliability planning and infrastructure development.

NERC said in a statement that it “commends” the MOU and its goals of facilitating communication. The organization noted that its own reliability assessments have consistently shown increasing impacts from extreme weather and the changing generation mix, with most of the continent assessed at either high or elevated risk of energy shortfalls in the most recent Long-Term Reliability Assessment. (See NERC Warns of Ongoing Extreme Weather Risks.)

“We believe that the energy transition that is occurring can work reliably, but the pace of change needs to be managed, and we have stressed the critical need to evaluate the impacts of these polices on reliability,” NERC said. “NERC is encouraged by the MOU and looks forward to engaging with DOE, EPA and others in this important effort.”