FERC’s annual Reliability Technical Conference next month will feature discussions of cyber and physical security threats, resource adequacy, extreme weather and other emerging concerns to grid reliability, according to an agenda posted Sept. 24 (AD24-10).
The commission hosts the technical conference each year to “discuss policy issues related to the reliability and security of the” electric grid, with panelists from across the ERO Enterprise and other industry participants. Panelists at this year’s conference include NERC CEO Jim Robb — who will also deliver an opening presentation on the state of reliability — along with NERC Chief Engineer Mark Lauby and representatives from MISO, ISO-NE, CAISO, Duke Energy and Southern Co.
The 2024 technical conference will be held at the commission’s headquarters in D.C. on Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. ET. It will also be viewable online.
In the first panel, attendees will discuss a range of challenges currently facing the electric grid, including the rapid spread of inverter-based resources and distributed energy resources, along with “the increased use and importance of natural gas … for system balancing.” Load growth from severe weather and cyber and physical threats are also on the panel’s agenda.
Robb’s co-panelists include Carrie Zalewski, vice president of transmission and electricity markets for the American Clean Power Association; Todd Ramey, senior vice president of markets and digital strategy for MISO; Nelson Peeler, senior vice president of grid strategy, planning and integration for Duke Energy; and Randy Howard, general manager of the Northern California Power Agency.
The second panel will focus on the challenge of maintaining resource adequacy amid “the retirement of existing generation resources, the addition of significant volumes of variable energy resources and rapid anticipated electric load growth” from sources such as data centers. Topics of discussion by the panelists will include appropriate metrics for capturing resource adequacy risk, the challenges of forecasting the addition of new large loads and whether existing resource adequacy mechanisms can procure enough resources to meet future demand.
Panelists on this session will include Lauby, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Chair Kristie Fiegen, Data Center Coalition President Josh Levi, Hoosier Energy CEO Donna Walker and CAISO Director of California Regulatory Affairs Cristy Sanada.
At the 2023 event, FERC Chair Willie Phillips and his colleagues focused in on cyber and physical security, extreme weather and the power grid’s changing resource mix, with Robb joined by Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center CEO Manny Cancel and SERC Reliability CEO Jason Blake, among others. (See FERC Conference Highlights Challenges of Evolving Grid.)
The conference has also provided stakeholders with an opportunity for airing frustrations with the ERO’s approach to reliability standards development and enforcement. At the 2021 conference, several participants criticized NERC’s standards process for being inherently conservative and giving significant influence to industry members who will be subject to penalties for noncompliance. (See Cybersecurity, Climate Change Lead FERC Conference.)
