By Holden Mann

FERC and NERC are working to ease the compliance burden on utilities grappling with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the organizations announced Wednesday.

In a press release, FERC and NERC said they “are using regulatory discretion” to address the difficulties registered entities may have with complying with reliability standards as follows:

• Regional entities will consider the impacts of the coronavirus an acceptable reason for the inability to obtain and maintain personnel certification for the period of March 1 through Dec. 31, 2020. Registered entities are advised to notify their REs if they are using system operator personnel that are not NERC-certified.
• Failure to perform periodic actions required by reliability standards will be accepted on a case-by-case basis between March 1 and July 31, 2020. REs should be notified of any periodic actions that will be missed during this period.
• REs will postpone on-site activities, including audits and certifications, until at least July 31, 2020. Registered entities should notify REs of any resource impacts associated with remote activities.

While these are the only specific measures announced so far, the organizations said they will “continue to evaluate the situation” to see if any updates are needed in light of the uncertain trajectory of the pandemic.

The announcement follows NERC’s issuance of a Level 2 Alert on March 10 and comes as organizations across the ERO Enterprise develop their own policies to reduce the risks of exposure by staff and stakeholders. Last week, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council joined other REs in canceling all in-person gatherings during the pandemic and holding only webinars and teleconferences. (See Coronavirus, Cybersecurity Top WECC Board Discussion.)

NERC has been working with the industry to provide advice and information about the coronavirus, including publishing a document titled Assessing and Mitigating the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council’s website. Internally, the organization has activated its Business Continuity Plan and is reviewing its meeting schedule on a case-by-case basis. The majority of its upcoming meetings have been shifted to conference calls or video conferences in light of safety recommendations from global health authorities and travel restrictions by many stakeholders.

According to the World Health Organization’s latest situation report, more than 191,000 coronavirus infections have been confirmed worldwide since the disease was first reported in Wuhan, China. More than 7,800 deaths have been directly attributed to the virus globally.