FERC Accepts NERC Risk-Based Registration Compliance Filing, Authorizes Elimination Of Load-Serving Entity Registration Function

On October 15, 2015, the Commission accepted the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's ("NERC") compliance filing implementing NERC's Risk-Based Registration ("RBR") initiative, and, among other things, authorized NERC's proposal to eliminate the Load-Serving Entity ("LSE") registration function. The Commission further directed NERC to submit an informational filing on the impact of the removal of the LSE function on the next-day studies of Transmission Operators and Balancing Authorities.

On December 11, 2014, NERC submitted a petition to FERC in which it proposed revisions to its Rules of Procedure that would implement the RBR initiative—an initiative aimed at focusing compliance resources on areas that have the greatest impact on the reliability of the Bulk Electric System ("BES") (see December 22, 2014 edition of the WER).