Project 2021-07 Extreme Cold Weather Grid Operations, Preparedness, and Coordination

Status

Board Adopted: February 15, 2024
Filed with FERC: February 16, 2024

Background
Extreme cold weather and precipitation affected the south central United States February 8-20, 2021. Many generating units experienced outages, derates, or failures to start, resulting in energy and transmission emergencies (referred to as “the Event"). The total Event firm load shed was the largest controlled firm load shed event in U.S. history and was the third largest in quantity of outaged megawatts (MW) of load after the August 2003 northeast blackout and the August 1996 west coast blackout.

Standard(s) Affected – BAL, EOP, IRO, TOP, or Other Standards as Identified in the SAR

Purpose/Industry Need
The primary purpose of this project is to address reliability related findings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NERC, and Regional Entity Joint Staff Inquiry into the February 2021 Cold Weather Grid Operations¹. The project scope will address nine recommendations for new or enhanced NERC Reliability Standards proposed by the report.

The NERC Board of Trustees (Board) issued a resolution in November 2021 for the development of standards under this project be completed in accordance with the staged timelines recommended by the joint inquiry team, as follows:

New and revised Reliability Standards to be submitted for regulatory approval before Winter 2022/2023: development completed by September 30, 2022 for the Board's consideration in October 2022;
New and revised Reliability Standards to be submitted for regulatory approval before Winter 2023/2024: development completed by September 30, 2023 for the Board's consideration in October 2023.

Phase 1 of the project ran from February – September 2022 and addressed the 4 Key Recommendations identified in the SAR. These standards were presented and approved by the NERC Board in October 2022. Phase 2 of the project began in October 2022 and is addressing the remaining Key Recommendations.

On February 16, 2023, FERC issued an Order Approving Extreme Cold Weather Reliability Standards EOP-011-3 and EOP-012-1 and Directing Modification of Reliability Standard EOP-012-1, N. Am. Elec. Reliability Corp., 182 FERC 61,094 (Feb. 16, 2023). In this order, FERC directed changes to be made to EOP-012-1.²

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¹ The February 2021 Cold Weather Outages in Texas and the South Central United States | FERC, NERC and Regional Entity Staff Report | Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
² eLibrary | File List (ferc.gov)

Draft	Actions			Dates	Results	Consideration of Comments
Phase 2 - Final Ballot of EOP-012-2 EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted l Redline to Last Approved (EOP-012-1) Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Mapping Document VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationale EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline	Final Ballot Info Vote	02/05/24-02/09/24			Ballot Results EOP-012-2 Implementation Plan
Phase 2 - Draft 3 of EOP-012-2 EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted l Redline to Last Approved (EOP-012-1) Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) Mapping Document VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationale EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline	Additional Ballots and Non-binding Poll Ballots Open Reminder Info Vote	01/16/24-01/22/24			Ballot Results EOP-012-2 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Result EOP-012-2	Consideration of Comments
	Comment Period Info Submit Comments	01/10/24-01/22/24			Comments Received
Waiver	Standards Committee accepted the waiver on December 13, 2023.
Phase 2 - Draft 2 of EOP-012-2 EOP-012-2updated Requirement R3 was updated to correct error in date to align with previous posting of EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted l Redline to Last Approved (EOP-012-1) Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word)updated Mapping Document VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationale* EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline	Additional Ballots and Non-binding Poll Ballots Open reminder Info*updated Vote	11/21/23-11/30/23			Ballot Results EOP-012-2 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Result EOP-012-2	Consideration of Comments
	Comment Period Info*updated Submit Comments	10/27/23-11/30/23			Comments Received
Phase 2 – Final Ballot of EOP-011-4 and TOP-002-5 EOP-011-4 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted \| Redline to Last Approved (EOP-011-3) TOP-002-5 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted \| Redline to Last Approved (TOP-002-4) Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationale EOP-011-4 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted TOP-002-5 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted	Final Ballot Info Vote	09/29/23 - 10/06/23			Ballot Results EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5 Implementation Plan
Phase 2 - Draft 2 of EOP-011-4 and TOP-002-5 EOP-011-4 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted \| Redline to Last Approved (EOP-011-3) TOP-002-5 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted \| Redline to Last Approved (TOP-002-4) Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationale EOP-011-4 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted TOP-002-5 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted	Additional Ballots and Non-binding Polls Ballots Open Reminder Info Vote	09/01/23 - 09/12/23			Ballot Results EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Results EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5	Consideration of Comments
	Comment Period Info Submit Comments	08/24/23 - 09/12/23			Comments Received
Waiver Waiver l Meeting Minutes	Standards Committee accepted the waiver on August 23, 2023.
Phase 2 - Draft 1 of EOP-012-2 EOP-012-2 Clean \| Redline to Last Approved (EOP-012-1) Implementation Plan Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) Mapping Document VRF/VSL Justifications FAQ Technical Rationale EOP-012-2	Initial Ballots and Non-binding Polls Ballots Open Reminder Info Vote		07/11/23 - 07/20/23		Ballot Results EOP-012-2 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Result EOP-012-2	Consideration of Comments
	Join Ballot Pools		06/05/23 - 07/5/23
	Comment Period Info Submit Comments		06/05/23 - 07/20/23		Comments Received
Phase 2 - Draft 1 EOP-011-4 Clean \| Redline to EOP-011-3 TOP-002-5 Clean \| Redline to Last Approved Implementation Plan Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) VRF/VSL Justifications Technical Rationales EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5	Initial Ballots and Non-binding Polls Ballot Open Reminder Info Vote			04/04/23 - 04/13/23	Ballot Results EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Results EOP-011-4 TOP-002-5	Consideration of Comments
	Join Ballot Pools			02/28/23 - 03/29/23
	Comment Period Info Submit Comments			02/28/23 - 04/13/23	Comments Received
Phase 1 - Final Draft EOP-011-3 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted \| Redline to Last Approved EOP-012-1 Clean \| Redline to Last Posted Implementation Plan Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Mapping Document Clean \| Redline VRF/VSL Justification Technical Rationale EOP-011-3 Clean \| Redline EOP-012-1 Clean \| Redline Technical Reference Document Calculating Extreme Cold Weather Temperature	Final Ballot Info Vote			09/23/22 – 09/30/22	Ballot Results EOP-011-3 EOP-012-1 Implementation Plan
Phase 1 - Draft 2 EOP-012-1 is a new standard dra fted by the Project 2021-07 SDT. Requirements R1, R2, R4, R6 and R7 are new requirements. Requirements R3 and R5 are carried over from EOP-011-2, which was revised under Project 2019-06 Cold Weather. These requirements have had minor revisions. EOP-012-1 Clean updated \| Redline to Last Posted Implementation Plan* Clean \| Redline Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) Mapping Document Clean \| Redline VRF/VSL Justification Technical Rationale EOP-012-1 Technical Reference Document *New	Additional Ballots and Non-binding Polls Updated Info Info Vote			08/23/22 – 09/01/22	Ballot Results EOP-012-1 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Results EOP-012-1	Summary Response to Comments Summary Response to Comments
	Comment Period Updated Info Info Submit Comments			08/03/22 – 09/01/22	Comments Received
Waiver Waiver	Standards Committee accepted the waiver on May 18, 2022.
Phase 1 - Draft 1 EOP-012-1 is a new standard drafted by the Project 2021-07 SDT. Requirements R1, R2, R4, and R6 are new requirements. Requirements R3 and R5 are carried over from EOP-011-2, which was revised under Project 2019-06 Cold Weather. These requirements have had minor revisions. EOP-011-3 Clean \| Redline EOP-012-1 Clean \| Redline Implementation Plan Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word) Mapping Document VRF/VSL Justification Technical Rationale EOP-011-3 \| EOP-012-1	Initial Ballots and Non-binding Polls Info (updated) Vote			06/08/22 – 06/21/22 (Extended)	Ballot Results EOP-011-3 EOP-012-1 Implementation Plan Non-Binding Poll Results EOP-011-3 EOP-012-1
	Comment Period Info Submit Comments			05/19/22 – 06/21/22 (Extended)	Comments Received (updated) (comments to question 8 were included in responses to question 10)
	Join Ballot Pools			05/19/22 – 06/02/22
Standard Authorization Request (SAR) Clean \| Redline	The Standards Committee Executive Committee accepted the SAR on February 25, 2022
Drafting Team Nominations Supporting Materials Unofficial Nomination Form (Word)	Nomination Period Info Submit Nominations			11/22/21 – 12/21/21
Standard Authorization Request Supporting Materials Unofficial Comment Form (Word)	Comment Period Info Submit Comments			11/22/21 – 12/21/21	Comments Received	Summary Response to Comments

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