The North American Electric Reliability Corp. on Thursday filed proposed cold weather preparedness and operations rules with federal regulators, after two previous drafts of the standard failed to achieve stakeholder ballot approval.
Reliability Standard EOP-012-3 “represents a meaningful step forward in addressing the risks posed by cold weather, strengthening generator preparedness and performance through clearer and more effective requirements,” NERC said in a statement. “By focusing on consistent implementation and timely remediation of freezing issues [the revised standard] will help ensure that the grid is better equipped to withstand and recover from extreme cold weather events.”
NERC told regulators that the proposed EOP-012-3 would improve on reliability standard EOP-012-2 by:
- Providing clear criteria for determining when a generator could declare constraints that would preclude them from implementing a specific corrective action to address freeze protection issues;
- Shortening deadlines for generators to implement corrective action plans so that known freezing issues are addressed more quickly;
- Requiring generators with new bulk electric system generating units entering commercial operation on or after Oct. 1, 2027, to have required cold weather capabilities upon entering commercial operation; and,
- Requiring generators to review their cold weather constraints at least once every 36 months for continued validity, instead of at least once every five years, “to ensure that new technologies are considered and circumstances preventing implementation are reevaluated.”
NERC first developed the EOP-012 standard in 2022 to ensure generator owners would take appropriate actions to prepare for extreme cold conditions. Winter weather has been a major factor in reliability events in multiple years since 2011, NERC said, but Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 in particular was a cold weather event that caused rotating blackouts in Texas and led to hundreds of deaths
Winter Storm Uri, “with its devastating human and economic toll, underscored the need for strong Reliability Standards to address the causes of this and previous cold weather reliability events and help assure the reliability of the Bulk-Power System in future winter seasons,” NERC told regulators.
The NERC Board of Trustees invoked its authority on April 4 to approve the rules after stakeholders could not reach agreement.
“Representatives from the Standards Committee, along with members of the drafting team and NERC staff, prepared a responsive standard that built on the prior framework approved by FERC and took into consideration comments from a broad group of stakeholders and final recommendations to further clarify the standard,” the reliability organization said in a statement.
NERC asked regulators to authorize the new standard to be effective Oct. 1, or three months after FERC approval, whichever date is later.
“This relatively short implementation timeframe reflects NERC’s determination that the practical impact of implementing the proposed changes is not expected be significant,” the organization told FERC.
