RM18-8 NOPR, Staff Presentation at Comm. meeting

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
May 17, 2018
Open Commission Meeting
Staff Presentation
Item E-1

“Good morning Chairman McIntyre and Commissioners,
“Today we will provide a summary of Item E-1.
“Agenda item E-1 is a notice of proposed rulemaking that addresses proposed Reliability
Standard TPL-007-2 (Transmission System Planned Performance During Geomagnetic
Disturbances). The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) developed and
submitted the proposed Reliability Standard in response to Order No. 830. In Order No. 830,
the Commission directed NERC to modify currently-effective Reliability Standard TPL-007-1:
(1) to revise the benchmark GMD event definition, as it pertains to required GMD Vulnerability
Assessments and transformer thermal impact assessments, so that the definition is not based
solely on spatially-averaged data; (2) to require the collection of necessary geomagnetically
induced current (GIC) monitoring and magnetometer data; and (3) to include a one-year
deadline for the preparation of corrective action plans and two- and four-year deadlines to
complete mitigation actions called for in corrective action plans involving non-hardware and
hardware mitigation, respectively.
“The draft notice of proposed rulemaking proposes to approve Reliability Standard TPL-007-2.
Proposed Reliability Standard TPL-007-2 largely addresses the directives in Order No. 830 by:
(1) incorporating, in addition to the benchmark GMD event definition, a new supplemental
GMD event definition that is not derived from spatially-averaged data; (2) requiring
applicable entities to collect GIC and magnetometer data; and (3) imposing deadlines for the
preparation of corrective action plans and the completion of corrective action plan tasks
based on the timeline set forth in Order No. 830.
“While proposing to approve Reliability Standard TPL-007-2, pursuant to section 215(d)(5) of
the Federal Power Act, the draft notice of proposed rulemaking also proposes to direct NERC
to modify Reliability Standard TPL-007-2 to require applicable entities to develop and
implement corrective action plans to mitigate supplemental GMD event vulnerabilities. The
draft notice of proposed rulemaking proposes to require NERC to comply with this directive
within 12 months of the effective date of Reliability Standard TPL-007-2.
“In addition, the draft notice of proposed rulemaking seeks comment on two options to
address the provision in proposed Reliability Standard TPL-007-2 that permits applicable
entities to exceed corrective action plan deadlines. Under one option, the Commission would
direct NERC to modify Reliability Standard TPL-007-2 to require NERC to consider extensions
of corrective action plan deadlines on a case-by-case basis, as directed in Order No. 830.
Under the second option, the Commission would approve the requirement in Reliability
Standard TPL-007-2 as proposed by NERC. Under either option, the Commission proposes to
direct NERC to submit a report regarding how often and why applicable entities are exceeding
corrective action plan deadlines.
“This concludes our presentation, we are happy to take any questions you may have.”
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