Prior to the enactment of section 215
of the Federal Power Act, FERC had acted primarily as an economic
regulator of the wholesale power markets and the interstate
transmission grid. In this regard, the Commission acted to promote
a more reliable electric system by promoting regional coordination
and planning of the interstate grid through regional independent
system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations
(RTOs). The passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 added to the
Commission's efforts, by giving it the authority to strengthen the
reliability of the interstate electric transmission grid through
the grant of new authority pursuant to section 215 of the Federal
Power Act which provides for a system of mandatory Reliability
Standards developed by the ERO, established by FERC, and enforced
by the ERO and Regional Entities. As part of FERC's efforts to
promote electric transmission grid reliability, the Commission
created the Office of Electric Reliability (OER) in 2007. OER
oversees the development and review of mandatory Reliability
Standards. OER also oversees compliance with the approved mandatory
standards by users, owners, and operators of the Bulk-Power System,
and maintains a situational awareness monitoring tool to provide
wide area visibility of the Bulk-Power System. NERC states the
proposed regional Reliability Standard PRC-006-SERC-01 was
developed to be consistent with the NERC UFLS Reliability Standard
PRC-006-1. Proposed regional Reliability Standard PRC-006-SERC-01
is designed to ensure that automatic UFLS protection schemes
designed by planning coordinators and implemented by applicable
distribution providers and transmission owners in the SERC Region
are coordinated to effectively mitigate the consequences of an
underfrequency event. The proposed regional Reliability Standard
PRC-006-SERC-01 adds specificity not contained in the NERC UFLS
Reliability Standard for UFLS schemes in the SERC Region and
effectively mitigates, in conjunction with Reliability Standard
PRC-006-1, the consequences of an underfrequency event while
accommodating differences in system transmission and distribution
topology among SERC planning coordinators resulting from historical
design criteria, makeup of load demands, and generation resources.
Under the proposed regional Reliability Standard, the information
is used to ensure compliance with requirements associated with
underfrequency load shedding plans. Without this information it
would be difficult to enforce compliance with the regional
standard. A lack of compliance with this regional standard may lead
to uncontrolled failure of the Interconnection.
US Code:
16
USC 824o Name of Law: Energy Policy Act of 2005
As stated in the response to
#12 of the supporting statement, this is the first time NERC has
requested Commission approval of this regional Reliability
Standard. NERC stated in its petition that UFLS requirements had
been in place at a continent-wide level and within SERC for many
years prior to implementation of the Commission-approved
Reliability Standards in 2007. Because the UFLS requirements have
been in place prior to the development of PRC-006-SERC-01, the
regional Reliability Standard is largely associated with
requirements the applicable entities are already following.
$1,588
No
No
No
No
No
Uncollected
Susan Morris 202
502-6803
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.