FERC and NERC Get Ahead of COVID-19 to Ensure Electric Grid Reliability

By Kelly A. Daly

Given the importance of ensuring the reliability of the electric grid, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") took pro-active steps to provide guidance to operators of the nation’s electric system on how this unprecedented health emergency could impact compliance issues. Specifically, FERC and NERC used their regulatory discretion to announce that the pandemic will constitute: 1) an acceptable basis for non-compliance with certain reliability standards associated with obtaining and maintaining personnel certifications from March 1, 2020 through the remainder of the year; and 2) an acceptable reason for case-by-case non-compliance with Reliability Standards that involve periodic action between March 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020.  Under both of these scenarios, registered entities are instructed to notify their Regional Entities and Reliability Coordinators when employing personnel that are not NERC-certified, when they are missing any periodic action or when they experience any resource impact associated with remote activities.

For information on additional steps that FERC is taking to address the impact of COVID-19 click here.