October 26, 2001—The North American Electric Reliability Council’s (NERC) Board of Trustees has expanded its role for developing standards for the wholesale electric industry in North America. At the recommendation of stakeholders, the Board pledged to take all necessary steps to become the single organization in North America to develop both reliability standards and wholesale electric business practice standards and to file such standards with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and appropriate government agencies in Canada.
NERC’s Board approved a new process for developing standards and agreed to a new composition and weighted sector voting model for its standing committees. To accomplish its reinvention, NERC will actively solicit support from Canadian and US government entities, and facilitate—along with interested trade associations; federal, state, and provincial regulators; and other stakeholder organizations—an open and inclusive process to achieve consensus on the details of its new role.
These actions are a major step toward formalizing a role that NERC has filled for some time. NERC is recognized as the industry’s developer of standards for the reliable planning and operation of interconnected transmission systems throughout North America. These standards have been the basis for the reliable operation of the bulk electric systems for over 30 years.
For more information on NERC or its transformation into NAERO, visit NERC.
