Wood sets reliability rules
goal by summer

The grid needs reliability standards — hopefully by summer 2004 — whether or not Congress passes a bill including them, FERC Chairman Pat Wood told a workshop on the interim blackout report.
     The commission has been under the assumption that it didn’t have the authority to promulgate reliability standards, Wood noted, but “it may be time to rethink that.”
     In the blackout’s early stages, operators at FirstEnergy lacked data needed to identify the problem and thus didn’t take steps to counteract it or to warn neighboring utilities, said FERC’s Alison Silverstein, who co-chairs the Canadian-US Electric System Working Group and is top aide to Wood.
     The Midwest ISO, FirstEnergy’s reliability coordinator, had unrelated software problems that made it oblivious to the utility’s troubles.
MISO and PJM lacked joint procedures to deal with problems along their common boundary.
     Reliability is primarily the responsibility of the control area, not the coordinators, Silverstein emphasized.
     The fundamental rule for grid operators, she specified, is to “deal with the grid in front of you and keep it secure.”
     Reliability rules are already in place, but Silverstein isn’t sure whether they’re “crisp enough” to be enforceable.
     Audit and oversight functions aren’t good enough, she told Commissioner Nora Brownell.
“We need a definition of what effective compliance means,” Silverstein added.
     “We need to make sure players live up to the standards and metrics you have set.”
She reported that the second phase of the report — on the cascade phase of the disruption when widespread blackout became inevitable — is to be out in January or February.
     FERC’s lineup at the meeting included new commissioners Joseph Kelliher and Suedeen Kelly.