The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s plan to issue data requests to generator owners requiring information about their generating units’ winterization efforts and performance during extreme cold weather events.
In February 2023, FERC approved a pair of reliability standards that provided new protections related to emergency operations and extreme cold weather preparedness. But FERC found that the standards required further modification to improve system performance during extreme cold weather events.
FERC’s February 2023 order directed, among other things, that NERC develop a plan to gather data on the winterization of generating units and actual performance of freeze protection measures during extreme cold weather events.
FERC approved NERC’s plan to issue data requests to generator owners requiring information including:
- The generating unit’s identity and location; the units and their megawatts of generation for which the owner has declared constraints under EOP-012, the constraint declaration type, and rationale;
- Megawatts of generation within the generation owner/operator’s fleet currently capable of operating at each unit’s Extreme Cold Weather Temperature, and projected megawatts for which the generator owner/operator expects to implement and complete corrective action plans for each year;
- The number of Generator Cold Weather Reliability Events experienced in the previous winter; and the megawatts of generating units identified as similar equipment to which the generator owner has determined that the cause(s) for the Generator Cold Weather Reliability Event are also applicable, and any similar equipment that will receive a declaration.
