In a teleconference that Chair Todd Bennett, of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., acknowledged was “heavy with content,” NERC’s Standards Committee agreed to move forward on a number of standards development projects Nov. 13 amid sometimes lively discussions.

Changes to SAR Revision Approved

The agenda began with a proposal to revise a standard authorization request (SAR) intended to address reliability risks in the performance of inverter-based resources (IBRs). The SAR was developed by NERC’s Inverter-Based Resource Performance Subcommittee (IRPS) and endorsed by the ERO’s Reliability and Security Technical Committee (RSTC) at its last meeting Sept. 11. (See NERC RSTC Approves Charter Revisions.)

As drafted by the IRPS, the SAR would update the existing standards FAC-001-4 (Facility interconnection requirements) and FAC-002-4 (Facility interconnection studies) to require transmission owners to establish IBR performance requirements along with their associated transmission planners and planning coordinators. SC members were asked to accept the SAR, authorize posting it for a 30-day informal comment period and assign it to the standard development team for the ongoing Project 2022-04 (EMT Modeling).

Members generally expressed support for the SAR, although Amy Casuscelli of Xcel Energy asked why NERC staff proposed assigning the SAR to the Project 2022-04 team rather than Project 2023-05 (Modifications to FAC-001 and FAC-002), which is already working on the same standards. NERC Manager of Standards Development Alison Oswald explained that staff “felt that this [task] better aligned with the work that the 2022-04 team was already doing.” In addition, she said that Project 2023-05 is considered “low priority” by NERC, so its team has not met recently.

Following this exchange, Casuscelli moved that the proposed informal comment period be changed to a formal one. She explained that she was concerned that the SAR had not received wide support from the RSTC and noted that even at the IRPS meeting that approved it, only 11 of 40 members voted in favor.

“That, to me, does not read like consensus,” Casuscelli said. Her fellow members agreed to accept her modification to the proposal and passed it unanimously.

Approved Standard to be Updated

Next was a proposed correction related to the draft standard TOP-003-7 (Transmission operator and balancing authority data and information specification and collection) and its implementation plan, which recently received industry approval in a third formal comment and ballot period that ended Nov. 4.

TOP-003-7 received a 92.77% segment-weighted approval, with the accompanying standard BAL-007-1 (Energy reliability assessments) receiving 81.53%. Both exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to move to NERC’s Board of Trustees for approval.

According to ISO-NE’s Mike Knowland — a member of the team that developed the standards — two errors were identified during the public comment period. NERC staff considered the issue urgent enough to request as part of the consent agenda that SC members waive the normal five business day limit for agenda changes.

The first error involved the effective dates for the terms “energy reliability assessment” and “near-term energy reliability assessment.” According to the balloted proposal, the terms would become effective at the same time as BAL-007-1, 24 months after the date of the standard’s approval by FERC.

However, the terms are also used in TOP-003-7, which would become effective six months before the other standard, according to the proposed implementation plan. This would mean TOP-003-7 would become effective before the definition was officially entered into NERC’s Glossary of Terms.

NERC staff proposed amending the implementation plan to move the effective date of the definitions forward by six months. In addition, staff proposed removing the term “energy reliability assurance” from TOP-003-7. Knowland explained that this term was erroneously left in the standard from a previous draft and should have been deleted before the ballot was conducted.

Committee members approved both proposals with no votes against them, although Marty Hostler of the Northern California Power Agency and Maggy Powell of Amazon Web Services both abstained, citing discomfort with the idea of changing an implementation date that industry already approved without giving stakeholders another chance to weigh in.

Because the updates are considered non-substantial, no further ballot period is required. The standards and implementation plan will be submitted to the board with the changes applied.

Next Phase of IBR Effort Underway

From there, the committee moved to three SARs concerning FERC Order 901, which requires NERC to submit new standards to improve the reliability of IBRs by 2026.

The ERO recently submitted the first of three planned tranches of new standards intended to satisfy FERC’s order. (See NERC Submits IBR Standards to FERC.) Now NERC is moving to the second tranche, which will cover data-sharing and model validation for IBRs; they are due to FERC by November 2025.

As unanimously approved by the SC members at the meeting, the SARs will be assigned to three existing standards projects:

• • Project 2022-02 — Uniform modeling framework for IBRs;
  • Project 2020-06 — Verifications of models and data for generators; and
  • Project 2021-01 — System model validation with IBRs (the new name of this project is on page 86 of the agenda but not yet on NERC’s website).

SC members also approved a proposal to appoint replacements for the chair and vice chair of the team for Project 2021-01, along with several SDT members. NERC’s Oswald explained that most of the original team members felt they lacked the expertise for their new remit. Only two of the existing team members will remain on the roster going forward, for a total team strength of six.