Voting is underway through 8 p.m. Nov. 4 to fill nine spots on NERC’s Standards Committee that are slated to open at the end of the year, following a nomination period that closed Oct. 15. (See NERC Seeks Nominations for SC Vacancies.)

Committee members — apart from the chair and vice chair — are elected from each of 10 industry segments to serve two-year terms. Each segment nominates two representatives, with terms staggered so that half of the membership is replaced each year.

NERC received only one nomination for the following segments, so they will run unopposed. Appendix 3B of NERC’s Rules of Procedure (ROP) requires each nominee to receive at least one vote before taking their seat:

• Segment 1, Transmission Owners: Troy Brumfield, American Transmission Co.;
• Segment 2, RTOs and ISOs: Charles Yeung, SPP;
• Segment 3, Load-serving Entities: Linn Oelker, LG&E and KU;
• Segment 4, Transmission-dependent Utilities: Barry Lawson, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association;
• Segment 5, Electric Generators: James Howell, Southern Co.;
• Segment 7, Large Electricity End Users: Venona Greaff, Occidental Chemical;
• Segment 8, Small Electricity End Users: Philip Winston, unaffiliated (formerly with Southern Co.); and
• Segment 9, Federal, State and Provincial Regulatory or Other Government Entities: Kimberly Jones, North Carolina Utilities Commission.

Four of the nominees — Yeung, Oelker, Lawson and Greaff — are already serving on the committee. Of the remaining new members, Brumfield would replace Dominion Energy’s Sean Bodkin; Howell would replace William Winters of Consolidated Edison; and Winston would take over from independent member David Kiguel. The Segment 9 seat is currently vacant.

The Segment 7 seat will be vacant through December 2021. NERC sought an additional nomination to fill this position, but because only Greaff was nominated, the position will remain open for another year. Segment 6 (Electricity Brokers, Aggregators and Marketers) will see a competitive election, with current member Rebecca Moore Darrah of ACES Power challenged by Justin Welty, senior manager of NERC reliability standards at NextEra Energy.

Members of each segment will be sent emails with a link to vote for their respective election. Each registered ballot body in an industry segment may cast one vote per position being filled. Proxies are allowed, but members must designate their proxies via email to NERC prior to voting.

Canadian Nominees Still Lacking

Segment 10 (Regional Reliability Organizations and Regional Entities) will use an “alternate election procedure” as allowed in the ROP to choose its nominee, according to an announcement. No details about the procedure were provided; NERC’s only requirements for such actions are that the process be ratified by at least two-thirds of the registered entities in the segment in which it will be applied and that it be approved by NERC’s Board of Trustees.

The status of Canadian representation on the committee is also not clear at this time. Currently, only two representatives from Canada serve on the committee: the independent David Kiguel and Robert Blohm of Keen Resources. While Blohm will remain on the committee through December 2021, Kiguel is planning to step down at the end of the year.

This means that Blohm is set to be the country’s sole representative on the committee in 2021, which is not permitted because of a requirement that the committee have at least two Canadian members. Under the ROP, if the regular election does not result in enough Canadian representation, the Canadian candidate who receives “the next highest percentage of votes within their respective segment(s)” will be named as an additional member to serve until the following year’s election.

It is not clear what happens if none of the segments nominates a suitable candidate. However, with Segment 10 the only division yet to submit a nominee and none of the other candidates qualifying, the committee may have to consider more options soon.