Project 2007-23
Violation Severity Levels

Related Files

Status
In August 2010, the VSL drafting team posted for a 45-day comment period its “Filing 2 VSLs,” the second of two sets of Violation Severity Levels (VSLs) requiring revision based on directives in a June 19, 2008 FERC Order and a November 20, 2008 FERC Order. The VSL drafting team reviewed these comments, made corresponding changes to the VSLs, and posted a consideration of comments report in September 2010.

In September 2010, the VSL drafting team conducted a 30-day review and 10-day nonbinding poll of the Filing 2 VSLs that ended on November 6, 2010. Of those who registered to participate, 79% provided an opinion, and support ranged from 60% on the BAL and INT VSLs to 83% on PRC and TPL standards. Based on the comments received during the nonbinding poll, the drafting team and NERC staff made final changes to the VSLs to address outstanding issues (especially for the BAL and INT standards). These changes were approved by the NERC Board of Trustees on November 19, 2010 and filed with FERC on December 1, 2010. A consideration of comments form, a set of clean Filing 2 VSLs, and a set of Filing 2 VSLs redlined against the latest FERC-approved versions are included below.

In February 2011, the VSL drafting team also posted supplemental revisions to 14 sets of VSLs from the original VSL filing (filed with FERC on March 5, 2010) for a 30-day comment period. A non-binding poll was held during the final ten days of the comment period. Of those who registered to participate, 78% provided an opinion; 72% of those who provided an opinion indicated support for the VSLs that were proposed. The drafting team has revised certain VSLs based on comments, and the revised VSLs have been posted on the project page. The changes were approved by the NERC Board of Trustees on March 10, 2011 and filed with FERC on March 21, 2011.

Purpose/Industry Need
The FERC, in the Order on Compliance Filing dated June 7, 2007 (Docket #RR06-1-007), directed NERC to replace the "Levels of Non-compliance" (in the 83 standards it approved) with "Violation Severity Levels” (VSLs). In compliance with the directives in paragraphs 13, 41, 42, and 56 of FERC’s June 19, 2008 Order (Docket #RR08-4-000), and paragraph 30 in the November 20, 2008 Order (Docket #RR08-4-001 and #RR08-4-002), NERC was directed to make further changes to the VSLs to ensure consistency with FERC’s and NERC’s VSL assignment guidelines.

NERC, as the ERO, is required to comply with FERC directives.  By replacing the existing ‘Levels of Non-compliance’ with ‘Violation Severity Levels’ the ERO’s Sanctions Guidelines can be used as designed.  The Sanctions Guidelines use ‘Violation Severity Levels’ as an element in determining the size of a sanction.