NERC is taking comments on a winter reliability standard for generators that has failed to clear its stakeholder process twice, the ERO announced Jan. 16.  

Comments are due by 8 p.m. EST on Jan. 22. NERC hopes to get one more vote on the rule, which failed to clear the stakeholder process its second time Nov. 30 with only 58% in support, short of the two-thirds required. If stakeholders fail to approve it this time, NERC Board of Trustees Chair Ken DeFontes has said the board might have to move the standard forward on its own. (See Standards Committee Authorizes Shortened Ballots.) 

FERC has required a new reliability standard to be filed by February based on the recommendations from its joint report with NERC on Winter Storm Uri, which led to deadly blackouts in Texas in February 2021. 

The proposed rule (EOP-012-2) would require generators to review their risks for extreme cold weather, which equates to the lowest 0.2 percent of hourly temperatures measured in December, January and February from Jan. 1, 2000, until the date temperatures are calculated. Any generator with extreme temperatures at or below freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) will have to comply with the standard. 

The proposal would require generators to develop and implement plans designed to mitigate the reliability impacts of cold weather. If the generators see lower extreme temperatures on their five-year reviews, those plans would have to be reviewed to ensure that they are in compliance with the standard and if they would have to identify additional mitigation measures. 

Generators would have to implement freeze protection measures that protect critical components so they could keep operating at their calculated extreme cold weather temperatures with sustained wind speeds of 20 mph for a period of not less than 12 continuous hours, or the maximum operational duration for intermittent energy resources. 

If a generator cannot meet the proposed standard’s requirements, it would be required to add new or modify existing freeze protection measures to provide the capability to operate at the extreme cold temperatures for its location. 

Generators will have to show that they have followed those cold weather plans and trained their staff to implement them, the proposed standard says. 

NERC plans to hold a nonbinding poll on the associated violation risk factors and violation severity levels through Jan. 22.