FERC Rejects Industry Understanding of NERC Transmission Planning Reliability Standard, Proposes to Impose Broader Interpretation

On March 18, in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) likely to have wide-ranging effects on the planning of transmission systems across the United States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposed to reject the industry understanding of a crucial Transmission Planning (TPL) Reliability Standard developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and instead impose a broader requirement on Planning Authorities and Transmission Planners when they assess the reliability of their systems under single contingency conditions and plan appropriate changes to their systems.

Under FERC’s proposed interpretation of Reliability Standard TPL-002-0 Requirement R1.3.10, Planning Authorities and Transmission Planners will now need their system assessments to demonstrate that their portions of the bulk-power system are planned so that under a single-contingency condition the system is stable, both thermal and voltage limits remain within applicable ratings, and there is no loss of demand or curtailed firm transfers even when an applicable primary protection system misoperates or fails.

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