March 30, 2007—The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acted to assure the reliability of the nation’s bulk power system by finalizing 83 reliability standards proposed by the Commission-certified electric reliability organization (ERO).
In July 2006, the Commission designated the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) as the ERO under section 215 of the Federal Power Act, a new provision added by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to establish a system of mandatory, enforceable reliability standards under the Commission’s oversight.
The final rule approves 83 of 107 proposed reliability standards, as well as six of the proposed eight regional differences and the Glossary of Terms submitted by NERC. These mandatory reliability standards apply to users, owners and operators of the bulk power system designated by NERC through its compliance registry procedures. Both monetary and nonmonetary penalties may be imposed for violations of the standards.
For more information, visit the FERC Web site.
