The North American Electric Reliability Corp. has developed new rules to address unregistered bulk power system-connected inverter-based resources, such as wind, solar and battery storage facilities, and plans to file them with federal regulators in early March, the reliability organization said Thursday.
Assessments have “identified a reliability gap associated with the increasing integration of IBRs as part of the grid in which a significant level of bulk power system-connected IBR owners and operators are not yet required to register with NERC or adhere to its Reliability Standards,” it said.
The proposed revisions to NERC’s rules of procedures were approved by its board last month and now must be finalized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“System events over the past six years have shown that these resources are impacting the reliability of the bulk power system,” said Howard Gugel, NERC vice president of compliance assurance and registration. “It is imperative that we register these resources and modify applicable Reliability Standards to establish operating expectations.”
NERC also said it is launching multiple initiatives to ensure industry and stakeholders “are kept informed throughout this critical, three-phase project.”
One is a quick reference guide that will provide a “visual dashboard [that] allows stakeholders to easily locate key project updates and resource document,” NERC said. And a new quarterly update report will “further facilitate transparency and alignment.”
IBRs have tripped offline at least 12 times since 2016, with an average loss of about 1,000 MW, FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said in October when the agency issued an order directing NERC to address the issue.
