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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observer mailing listSelect "NERC Email Distribution Lists" from the "Service" drop-down menu and specify “Project 2021-07 Extreme Cold Weather Grid Operations, Preparedness, and Coordination Observer List” in the Description Box.
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)
