Committee Approves Errata to IBR Standard

Despite last week’s acceptance of PRC-029-1 (Frequency and voltage ride-through requirements for inverter-based resources) by NERC’s Board of Trustees, the ERO isn’t quite finished with the ride-through protection standard, the organization’s Director of Standards Development Jamie Calderon told NERC’s Standards Committee. 

The board approved the new standard in a special meeting Oct. 8 after it passed its final industry ballot with a weighted segment average of 77.48%, following a sometimes-rocky development process that saw the board exercise its authority to bypass parts of the stakeholder approval process to meet FERC’s deadline for the standard. (See NERC Examining Lessons from IBR Standard Development.) 

Calderon explained to the SC’s monthly conference call Oct. 16 that NERC staff had identified “some minor errata” in the standard and its implementation plan after they were submitted to the board, necessitating a few small wording updates: 

• • changing the word “manufacture” to “manufacturer” in PRC-029-1 
  • adding an effective date for the definition of “ride-through” in the implementation plan 
  • removing the term “voltage” from the description of IBRs that cannot meet ride-through requirements in the implementation plan 

The errata passed the committee’s vote unanimously. No further industry comment or ballot is necessary; the corrected version will be filed with FERC in the petition for approval of PRC-029-1. 

Claudine Fritz of Exelon, noting the “rushed” development of the final standard, asked that NERC make sure to reserve time in the future for proofreading so such errors can be caught and corrected before board approval. Chair Todd Bennett of Associated Electric Cooperative explained that the ERO is conducting an internal effort to identify lessons learned from the development of PRC-029-1 and other IBR-related standards, as NERC Vice President of Engineering and Standards Soo Jin Kim previously told the board.  

More Standards Actions

Other actions approved by the SC this week include authorizing the posting of proposed standard EOP-012-3 (Extreme cold weather preparedness and operations) for a formal comment and ballot period. The comment period began Oct. 17, along with the opening of ballot pools. Voting will open Oct. 31 and close Nov. 5 along with the comment period. 

This is NERC’s second time revising its cold weather standard in response to a FERC order. The commission accepted EOP-012-1 in 2023 but ordered revisions to be completed by this year. Those revisions resulted in EOP-012-2, which FERC accepted in June, with an order of additional changes to be completed by March 2025. (See FERC Orders Further Cold Weather Standard Modifications.)  

The new standard is intended to address shortcomings identified by FERC in its predecessor, which include ensuring entities can understand the generator cold weather constraint criteria, allowing NERC to confirm the validity of cold weather constraints and clarifying implementation deadlines for corrective action plans.  

NERC Manager of Standards Development Alison Oswald said the team is pursuing a shortened comment and ballot period — 20 days rather than the usual 45 — to improve its chances of meeting FERC’s deadline. At least two more ballots are planned after this. 

In addition, the committee authorized appointing 12 members, including chair and vice chair, to the standard drafting team for Project 2024-02 (Planning energy assurance).  

This is one of two teams working on this project, which is intended to create requirements for performing energy reliability assessments. The team approved at this week’s meeting will address assessments for the planning time horizon, while another team tackles assessments on the operational planning time horizon. 

Elections on the Horizon

With 10 committee members’ terms expiring at the end of the year and one member resigning, the SC will hold elections to select their replacements in December. 

Those with expiring terms are: 

• • Amy Casuscelli, Xcel Energy (Segment 1) 
  • Charles Yeung, Southwest Power Pool (Segment 2) 
  • Vicki O’Leary, Eversource Energy (Segment 3) 
  • Patti Metro, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (Segment 4) 
  • Jim Howell, Treaty Oak Clean Energy (Segment 5) 
  • Justin Welty, NextEra Energy (Segment 6) 
  • Venona Greaff, Occidental Chemical (Segment 7) 
  • Philip Winston, independent (Segment 8) 
  • William Chambliss, Virginia State Corporation Commission (Segment 9) 
  • Steve Rueckert, WECC (Segment 10) 

In addition, Peter Yost of Con Edison, whose term representing Segment 6 was to have expired at the end of 2025, has stepped down from the SC due to retirement, said Bennett, of Associated Electric Cooperative.  

Nominations will be accepted from Oct. 21 to Nov. 12, NERC Standards Developer Dominique Love said, with the election held from Dec. 4-13. For Segment 6, the recipient of the most votes will serve the full two-year term, while the runner-up will serve out the remainder of Yost’s term.