FERC to act on power grid reliability Wed-source

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Wednesday will outline steps it can take to prevent a repeat of last summer's massive power blackout, an agency source said on Tuesday.

A report released this month by U.S. and Canadian investigators found that utilities need to have mandatory standards to prevent a repeat of the Aug. 14-15 blackout that hit about 50 million people in the United States and Canada.

A policy statement set to be unveiled at FERC commissioners' regular meeting on Wednesday will define the agency's role in "assuring reliable grid operations and add teeth to (industry) rules," according to an agency source familiar with the document. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.

Currently in the United States, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) sets voluntary standards for the industry, but no federal agency has authority to enforce them or penalize those that break them. NERC has proposed stricter standards, which would be enforced by regulators at FERC.

An energy bill stalled in the U.S. Senate would formally mandate that arrangement. If Congress fails to act, the blackout report said FERC should "review its statutory authorities under existing law" to bolster reliability rules.

The final report by blackout investigators pinned much of the blame on the failure of Ohio utility FirstEnergy Corp. to trim trees around its power lines, which caused major lines to short out and set off a domino outage effect that swept across eight U.S. states and part of Canada.

FERC's agenda includes an item that would require transmission owners to report their tree-trimming practices.

Additional information on the rule was not available. But last week FERC told the White House Office of Management and Budget it plans to require all U.S. companies that own or operate transmission grids to report their tree-trimming practices by June 17.

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