FERC Grants Itself Access To NERC Transmission And Generation Databases

On June 16, 2016, FERC amended its regulations to require that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") provide FERC Commissioners and staff with access, on a non-public and ongoing basis, to NERC's Transmission Availability Data System ("TADS"), the Generating Availability Data System ("GADS"), and the protection system misoperations database. While FERC explained that such access would "provide the Commission with information necessary to determine the need for new or modified Reliability Standards and to better understand NERC's periodic reliability and adequacy assessments," it also added that "the Commission is not precluded from using the accessed data for other statutory purposes."