FERC-725HH, RF Reliability Standards

On August 8, 2005, The Electricity Modernization Act of 2005, which is Title XII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), was enacted into law. EPAct 2005 added a new Section 215 to the Federal Power Act (FPA), which requires a Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to develop mandatory and enforceable Reliability Standards, which are subject to Commission review and approval. Once approved, the Reliability Standards may be enforced by the ERO, subject to Commission oversight. In 2006, the Commission certified the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the ERO pursuant to FPA section 215. Reliability Standards that the ERO proposes to the Commission may include Reliability Standards that are proposed to the ERO by a Regional Entity . A Regional Entity is an entity that has been approved by the Commission to enforce Reliability Standards under delegated authority from the ERO. On 3/17/2011, the Commission approved a regional Reliability Standard submitted by the ERO that was developed by ReliabilityFirst Corporation (RF). There was only one Reliability Standard in the RF region, namely BAL-502-RFC-02 (Planning Resource Adequacy Analysis, Assessment, and Documentation). BAL-502-RFC-02 established common criteria (based on “one day in ten year”) load loss expectation principles, for the analysis, assessment, and documentation of resource adequacy for load in the RF region. Burden associated with BAL-502-RF-02 Reliability Standard was once contained in FERC-725H information collection (OMB Control No. 1902-0256) as approved by Order No. 747 . FERC-725H was discontinued on 3/6/2014 . However, the reporting requirements of BAL-502-RF-02 remained imposed on NERC entities after discontinuance as they had been imposed before Order No. 747 was approved. Based on the findings of Order No. 747, burden associated with BAL-502-RF-02 was not substantive, but Commission staff sought approval anyway using a minimal amount of burden. In 2014, Commission staff no longer considered renewing this collection as an effective use of time for Commission staff, OMB, or the public since it did not qualify as an “information collection” under the Paperwork Reduction Act. Commission staff have verified that the ReliabilityFirst Corporation Terms of Membership did require members to comply with the standard regardless of whether FERC has approved it and, as stated earlier, this was the Standard’s status prior to FERC approving the standard in 2011. Those requirements in BAL-502-RF-02 are now being retired with no removal of burden (any associated burden was removed concurrent with the discontinuance of FERC-725H in 2014). On 9/7/2017, NERC and RF filed a joint petition in Docket No. RD17-8-000 requesting Commission approval of: • Regional Reliability Standard BAL-502-RF-03; • The retirement of regional Reliability Standard BAL-502-RF-02 .

The latest form for FERC-725HH, RF Reliability Standards expires 2021-03-31 and can be found here.