Docket No. RD24-1-000
While I am voting with my colleagues to approve these revised Reliability Standards, I am writing separately to express my concern with the delayed implementation timeline for EOP-011-4.
Today’s order highlights “the importance of these revised Reliability Standards to maintaining the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System.”[1] But this stated importance is undercut by the extended time granted to affected Registered Entities to implement the new requirements. Specifically, NERC proposed that EOP-011-4 become effective on the first day of the first calendar quarter that is six months following regulatory approval,[2] and then for each affected Registered Entity to have at least 30 months after this effective date to comply with the new and revised provisions of the requirement.[3] Under the best of scenarios, this would mean that these new and revised provisions would be implemented no sooner than April 1, 2027— three years, and crucially, three winters from today.[4]
Three years after regulatory approval to implement changes to a Reliability Standard is an awfully long time. By the time these standards are implemented, recent experience has taught us that we are likely to face one or more dangerous winter storms. As with Uri in February 2021, Elliott in December 2022, and Gerri/Heather in January 2024, widespread, long duration winter storms that threaten the reliability of our system are no longer rare events, but rather nearly annual occurrences.
I appreciate that NERC has continually worked with its stakeholders to advance improved Reliability Standards for cold weather operations and preparedness following Winter Storm Uri and the subsequent Staff Report.[5] I also recognize that the 30-month implementation timeframe is responsive to some stakeholders’ concerns about the potential time needed to implement any physical changes necessary to comply with the requirements of the revised standard. However, considering the urgency of the winter storm risk that faces our system, this is not the first time that I have been left wondering if our processes for drafting and implementing needed Reliability Standards, whether they be cold weather standards or cybersecurity standards, are too slow to keep up with needed change.[6]
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] Order, 186 FERC ¶ 61,115, at P 20 (2024).
[2] By my calculation, this would mean October 1, 2024.
[3] NERC, Petition, Docket No. RD24-1-000, Exhibit B “Implementation Plan” at 3 (filed Oct. 30, 2023).
[4] However, as discussed in the draft order, the actual effective date and implementation plan for EOP-011-4 hinges on NERC’s upcoming submission, and Commission approval, of a revised applicability section for EOP-012. If the Commission was to reject the revised applicability section of EOP-012, it is unclear to me when we can expect the requirements to EOP-011-4 (and the preceding, but also yet to be effective, EOP-011-3) to be implemented.
[5] See FERC, NERC, and Regional Entity Staff, The February 2021 Cold Weather Outages in Texas and the South Central United States, 19 (Nov. 16, 2021) (November 2021 Report), https://www.ferc.gov/media/february-2021-cold-weather-outages-texas-and-south-central-united-states-ferc-nerc-and.
[6] See e.g., Transcript of the 1097th Meeting, FERC, at 21 (Jan. 19, 2023), https://www.ferc.gov/media/transcript-january-2023-commission-meeting (“I’m very pleased that we are directing a firm 15-month deadline for NERC to propose the standards . . . . The processes take time, but it is imperative that we get this important cybersecurity measure in place as quickly as it is feasible.”); Transcript of the 1098th Meeting, FERC, at 23-24 (Feb. 16, 2023), https://www.ferc.gov/media/transcript-february-2023-commission-meeting (“[T]he critical generator weatherization requirements as proposed are, to be frank, not up to the task. The proposal before us requires existing generators to weatherize so they are capable of operating for one hour at extreme cold temperatures beginning in April of 2027. . . . [W]aiting [for] four additional winters before weatherization requirements actually kick in does not reflect the urgency we feel.”).