The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave final approval last week to the first phase of rules to protect the grid from geomagnetic disturbances. It also finalized a standard regarding personnel training opposed by PJM and gave preliminary approval to a standard on capacity modeling.

Geomagnetic Disturbances – EOP-010-1

The commission approved the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s Reliability Standard EOP-010-1, NERC’s initial response to the commission’s July order calling for rules to close the “reliability gap” regarding geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) caused by solar events. Geomagnetically induced currents can flow through transformers and transmission lines, leading to increased reactive power consumption and disruptive harmonics that can cause system collapse.

The standard requires reliability coordinators and some transmission operators to institute operational procedures to mitigate the effect of GMDs. The rule applies to transmission with a “transformer with a high side wye-grounded winding with terminal voltage greater than 200 kV.”

FERC approved the rule without changes, rejecting comments by the Foundation for Resilient Societies and others that the rule should apply to transmission operators with systems less than 200 kV. The Foundation noted that during a March 1989 solar storm cited by FERC, utilities reported effects on static VAR compensators and other reactive power equipment operating between 100 kV and 200 kV.

But FERC said that transformers operating at 200 kV or less “are likely to have a limited impact” on the grid during a GMD event.

The commission also rejected criticism from George H. Baker, a U.S. Defense Department consultant on GMD threats, who said the standard will be ineffective. Baker said failures of equipment and disruptions to communications networks will inhibit grid operators’ ability to respond to a GMD event and that they will be reluctant to shed load.

The commission acknowledged that the operational procedures spelled out in this first-stage response “are not a complete solution to the risks posed by a GMD event.

“While we recognize the concerns in the comments of Baker and others regarding the efficacy of operational procedures, Order No. 779 weighed those concerns in ultimately directing NERC to develop operational procedures in the First Stage GMD Reliability Standards and more comprehensive protections in the Second Stage GMD Reliability Standards,” FERC said in its ruling.

In stage two, NERC must determine what severity of GMD will constitute a “benchmark” GMD event. Covered entities will be required to assess the potential impact of such benchmark events on their equipment and systems.

PJM already has GMD operational procedures, which are detailed in section 3.7 of Manual 13.

Personnel Training – PER-005-2

The commission also approved an expansion of NERC’s personnel training standard to include operations support personnel, as well as employees of transmission owners and generator operators who support real-time grid operations (RD14-7).

The new training requirements will apply to:

• System operators for reliability coordinators, balancing authorities and transmission operators, defined as “[p]ersonnel, excluding field switching personnel, who can act independently to operate or direct the operation of the Transmission Owner’s Bulk Electric System transmission Facilities in Real-time”;
• Operations support personnel for reliability coordinators, balancing authorities and transmission operators, who perform current day or next-day outage coordination or assessments, or who determine system operating limits (SOL), interconnection reliability operating limits (IROL) or operating nomograms in support of real-time operations; and
• Dispatch personnel of generator operators at centrally located dispatch centers who receive direction from Reliability Coordinators, Balancing Authorities, Transmission Operators or Transmission Owners.

The revised standard will eliminate a requirement that all system operators receive at least 32 hours of emergency operations training annually regardless of the entity’s characteristics or reliability risk.

The proposed standard was endorsed by the California ISO, ERCOT, ISO New England, MISO, NYISO and SPP. But PJM called it “an unnecessary and a potentially ineffective means to address an otherwise straightforward requirement; namely to train appropriate personnel.”

PJM said that program accreditation would be more effective because it would place “the emphasis on the training program itself, and associated controls,” rather than on “applicable individuals, their personal training and performance records, individual pieces of training content, and other administrative documentation.”

FERC said an accreditation-based training program is not precluded “as an alternative means of compliance” if it otherwise meets the NERC standard.

Modeling, Data, and Analysis Reliability Standard MOD-001-2

The commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (RM14-7) to revise NERC’s standards on the calculation of available transfer capability (ATC) and available flowgate capability (AFC).

ATC and AFC calculations, which dictate the amount of transmission capacity that a transmission service provider will sell to third parties, also raise reliability concerns, the commission noted, because transmission providers need “to know of its neighbors’ system conditions affecting its own ATC values.”

The proposed standard would require documentation of the methodologies for determining ATC and AFC, total transfer capability, total flowgate capacity, capacity benefit margin and transmission reliability margin. It also sets requirements for sharing the methodology and data inputs with registered entities with a “demonstrated reliability need.”

It would also eliminate from current standards requirements that NERC said may be necessary for market or commercial purposes. NERC asked the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) to consider whether any of the retired requirements should be incorporated into its Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) Standards to maintain a non-discriminatory market for transmission service.