NERC’s Standards Committee moved forward with two standards projects in a brief meeting on Wednesday, but not before revisiting an ongoing argument about the standards development process.

SAR Approval Meets Process Objection

A proposal to approve the standard authorization request (SAR) for Project 2020-03 (Supply chain low impact revisions) and appoint the standard drafting team (SDT) met with an objection from Barry Lawson of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Lawson noted that the SAR did not appear to have been modified in reaction to negative feedback received during the informal comment period that ended last June.

“I know [that] on an informal comment period, a written response is not required at all, but I’m concerned about the broad range of comments that were … negative and were not addressed, at least in any modifications to the SAR,” he said.

Lawson’s issue with the SAR drafting team’s lack of response echoed an argument in the committee’s December meeting, when members voted to reject the SAR for Project 2020-01 on the grounds that the drafting team had made no effort to address industry concerns raised in the informal comment period. (See “SAR Rejected over Industry Comments,” NERC Standards Committee Briefs: Dec. 9, 2020.)

Marty Hostler, reliability compliance manager for the Northern California Power Agency, led the effort to reject 2020-01 and joined Lawson’s objection to 2020-03 as well.

“Before SARs come to the Standards Committee, it says right in the Standard Processes Manual that they need to have stakeholder support. And I don’t see stakeholder support in this SAR, so it needs to be rejected,” Hostler said.

Although the committee ultimately agreed to approve the SAR — with Hostler and Lawson casting the only votes against it — Lawson warned that the issue is likely to arise again. He suggested that the committee consider revising the Standard Processes Manual to allow the option of remanding a problematic SAR back to the drafting team for revisions, rather than just approving or rejecting it.

Members Question SAR Team Experience

A proposal to appoint the SAR drafting team for Project 2020-05 (Modifications to FAC-001-3 and FAC-002-2) proved less contentious, with members voting unanimously to approve NERC’s slate of 12 nominees, including the chair and vice chair. Nominees were not identified by name during the meeting.

Though members raised no objections to the slate, some questioned the relative lack of experienced members on the slate. Of the 12 candidates, only four have previously served on a SAR drafting team or SDT. Charles Yeung of SPP asked Howard Gugel, NERC’s vice president of engineering and standards, if there was a reason for the apparent decision to weight the team toward newcomers.

“There’s been some complaints, from the Standards Committee and others, that we need to bring in some fresh blood, so to speak — get people that aren’t familiar, that maybe aren’t as entrenched in things as other folks might be,” Gugel answered. “So we think this is a good blend of some folks with experience, but also some folks that can bring us some fresh ideas.”

In response to further questions, NERC Senior Standards Developer Latrice Harkness assured the committee that NERC still considers SDT experience essential for drafting team members, and that the organization is careful to balance the talents and backgrounds that might be useful for different projects. Gugel also reminded participants that NERC’s policy is to seek additional nominations if it feels the needs of the project are not being met.