Related Files
Status
The informal comment period for the Project 2022-03 Energy Assurance with Energy-Constrained Resources Standard Authorization Requests (SARs) concluded at 8 p.m. Eastern, Thursday, July 21, 2022. The drafting team will review all responses received and determine the next steps of the project.
Background
Energy assurance is an increasingly important aspect of a reliable Bulk Electric System (BES), but has been inconsistently defined and measured without explicit standards. The project scope will address several energy assurance concerns related to the operations, operations planning, and mid- to long-term planning time horizons which was first identified in the NERC white paper entitled Ensuring Energy Adequacy with Energy-Constrained Resources1.
Today, the transition from coal and nuclear generation to wind, solar, natural gas (with and without oil back up), distributed energy resources, and hybrid (renewables plus energy storage) resources is creating a more complex scenario and highlighting the need for energy assurance. Installed generating capacity analysis alone is not sufficient to ensure a reliable supply of energy for the BES. The proliferation of intermittent renewable generation in the resource mix increases the importance of having precisely controllable resources with sufficient fuel available, ready to respond when needed. The increasing prevalence of distribution-level resources and flexible load programs introduces added volatility into energy forecasts, further complicating operations energy reliability assessments.
This project will address two SARs.
Standard(s) Affected: TPL-001-5.1, EOP, and TOP
Purpose/Industry Need
This project will enhance reliability by requiring entities to perform energy reliability assessments to evaluate energy assurance and develop Corrective Action Plan(s) to address identified risks. Energy reliability assessments evaluate energy assurance across the Operations Planning, Near-Term Transmission Planning, and Long-Term Transmission Planning or equivalent time horizons by analyzing the expected resource mix availability (flexibility) and the expected availability of fuel during the study period.
1Energy_Assurance_White_Paper (nerc.com)
