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Princeton, NJ, Mar. 21, 2007 -- The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) lauded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) approval of a substantial portion of the reliability standards proposed by NERC in 2006. The standards are designed to help ensure the reliability of the bulk power system. FERC's action makes adherence to 83 reliability standards mandatory and enforceable in the United States. The standards will take effect and NERC will begin enforcing them in the summer of 2007.
FERC also identified improvements to be made to the approved standards, as well as to a number of other standards still pending at FERC, and directed NERC to pursue those changes through NERC's approved standards development process. NERC has included the actions needed for those improvements in its standards work plan and expects to file additional new or amended standards in the coming months.
"The bulk power industry has had reliability standards for decades, but they were voluntary in nature. Having mandatory, enforceable reliability standards is a huge step in improving the reliability of the bulk power system," said NERC president and CEO Rick Sergel. "Also significant is the commission's direction to the industry to work through the NERC standards development process to address needed improvements in the standards, because that's the place the industry's technical expertise and the interests of all stakeholders can be considered together."
"NERC has worked for nearly a decade to achieve mandatory and enforceable reliability standards, and it is extremely gratifying to reach this major goal in the U.S.," agreed NERC chairman Richard Drouin. "We look forward to working with the governmental authorities on both sides of the border to continue our efforts to improve the reliability of the bulk power system."
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