Emerging Policy On NERC Compliance For Generator Interconnections

The ongoing struggle to determine how and when generator interconnection facilities should be subject to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) rules governing transmission owners and transmission operators seems to be drawing to a conclusion. NERC has proposed a modest set of changes to its reliability standards, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) generally proposes to approve.

On April 18, 2013, FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, Generator Requirements at the Transmission Interface, (NOPR), in which it proposes to adopt NERC's proposed amendments to two transmission owner reliability standards to make them, under the appropriate set of facts, applicable to generator interconnection facilities.¹ NERC also proposes to add language to two generator reliability standards to include specifically generator interconnection facilities under their coverage. Comments on the NOPR are due June 24, 2013.