NERC Compliance Guidance Can Enhance Understanding of Reliability Standards

SPOKANE, Wash., Aug. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Earlier this month, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) posted several new documents to their compliance guidance web page. The documents, which align with NERC's Compliance Guidance Policy, provide examples and recommendations on how reasonable assurance with the compliance of specific NERC Reliability Requirements may be achieved. A new addition to the library is a proposed compliance implementation guidance document from the NERC operating Committee on Real-time Assessment Analysis Quality. The document provides compliance guidance to Reliability Coordinators and Transmission Operators on the practices and processes that could be used to assess the quality of Real-time Assessment (RTA) analyses, as implied in Requirement R2 of NERC Reliability Standard IRO-018-1(i) and Requirement R3 of TOP-010-1(i). Chapter 3 within the document begins with several recommendations provided to Registered Entities on Energy Management System tools and their displays that can be used to demonstrate how analysis quality can be evaluated. A later section within the chapter identifies recommended actions to be taken by Registered Entities to correct poor execution quality with analytical tools and displays, and the compliance documentation that should be generated. The document concludes with a list of best practices collected by the NERC Operating Committee and a reminder that Registered Entities relying on third-party RTA analytical results are still responsible for evaluating data and analysis quality.

PCS reminds Reliability Coordinators and Transmission Operators that they are obligated to provide two different sets of evidence for their respective requirements. The first set of evidence is the Operating Process or Procedure used to identify the criteria, mechanisms, and actions necessary to evaluate RTA analysis quality. The second set is evidence that the action steps identified within the Registered Entity's document were implemented. The compliance implementation guidance document provides examples for the criteria, mechanisms, and actions that can be used, but provides little focus on the organization of such information and related compliance evidence collection processes in the Registered Entity's document. PCS recommends the Registered Entity should first provide a holistic overview identifying all available mechanisms used in a RTA to ensure that the assessment is performed at least once every 30 minutes. The Registered Entity should then review each mechanism, one-by-one within the Operating Process or Procedure, and identify the criteria that monitoring staff should use to determine whether the quality of the mechanism's execution has been compromised. A list of corrective actions, the person/role responsible for implementing such actions, and the required documentation for confirming the implementation should also be included.

PCS was formed in 2010 by a team of seasoned compliance professionals with a desire to make a qualitative difference in the electric utility industry. Collectively, the PCS team has over 300 years of industry experience in literally all aspects of the power system, including generation, transmission, and distribution system operations, technical writing, and regulatory compliance. PCS staff has extensive technical experience in writing operating procedures, and can assist Registered Entities in developing or enhancing these or other Operating Processes and Procedures.

For information on how PCS can support your organization's reliability compliance needs, please contact Dale Zahn at (262) 436-4116 or visit our website at http://www.provencompliance.com. #NERCcompliance #NERC #criticalinfrastructureprotection #weccreliability #SPPorg #ReliabilityFirst #Texas_RE_Inc

SOURCE PCS