FERC Issues Two Reliability-Related NOPRs, Proposes To Replace Certain Currently-Effective NERC Reliability Standards

On June 18, 2015, the Commission issued two separate Notice of Proposed Rulemakings ("NOPRs") in which it proposed to approve several mandatory Reliability Standards submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC"). The proposed Reliability Standards broadly address the areas of Transmission Operations ("TOP"), Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination ("IRO"), Emergency Preparedness ("EOP"), and Undervoltage Load Shedding ("UVLS"). If approved, the proposed Reliability Standards would replace several currently-effective NERC Reliability Standards.

In the first NOPR, the Commission proposed to approve revisions to two families of Reliability Standards—TOP and IRO. With respect to the TOP Reliability Standards, the Commission proposed to approve three Reliability Standards: (i) TOP-001-3 (Transmission Operations); (ii) TOP-002-4 (Operations Planning); and (iii) TOP-003-3 (Operational Reliability Data). According to