The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to delay the implementation of seven reliability standards that relate to cybersecurity, training, disturbance monitoring and reporting, generator relay loadability, and coordination of protection systems for performance during faults.
In an April 6 filing to FERC, NERC noted the rules were scheduled to become effective later this year, but, as NERC noted, their implementation could be hampered by “significant uncertainties” regarding the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak and recovery.
Significantly, NERC also noted it is exercising its enforcement discretion with respect to other currently effective reliability standards. It also said it would consider the COVID-19 pandemic an “extenuating circumstance” under its Sanction Guidelines for all noncompliance “where the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, such as on workforce availability or supply chain resources, were a cause or contributing factor to the noncompliance.”
It is unclear when FERC could act on the motion, but, over the past week, NERC’s instant motion has been publicly …
