Spotlight Articles

Spotlight on a Proposed Reference Document Update – Balancing Authority Area Footprint Change Tasks

Today's LiveWire Spotlight assesses the proposed updates to NERC’s guidance outlining the process and coordination actions that Balancing Authorities must take when they merge with other BAs. The document explains…

Spotlight on NERC’s 2018 Long-Term Reliability Assessment

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC’s latest Long-Term Reliability Assessment addressing the reliability, adequacy, and security of the Bulk Power System in the 10-year planning horizon. The study outlines five…

Spotlight on NERC Lessons Learned – Fault Analysis

Today's LiveWire Spotlight evaluates three NERC Lessons Learned where Fault analysis was used to assess the operating condition of a Transmission and/or Protection System either before, during, or after an…

Spotlight on NERC’s 2018-2019 Winter Reliability Assessment

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines NERC's 2018-2019 Winter Assessment, which evaluates the reliability and adequacy of the BPS during this winter season. Although there are concerns in some spots, the study…

Spotlight on NERC’s Special Assessment on a Generation Retirement Scenario

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at a Special Reliability Assessment issued by NERC identifying the resource and transmission planning challenges that may arise as generation retirements accelerate in the transition to…

Spotlight on a NERC Draft White Paper – State Estimation Using PMU Measurements

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines a draft White Paper developed by NERC’s Synchronized Measurement Subcommittee to help Operating Entities improve their situational awareness capabilities using high resolution data provided by Phasor…

Spotlight on the Standards Authorization Request for Project 2018-04 – Modifications to PRC-024-2

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines the Standards Authorization Request for Project 2018-04, which looks to clarify the inverter-based resource frequency and voltage protective settings criteria in PRC-024-2. The initiative acts on…

Spotlight on BAL-003-2 Draft 2 – Frequency Response

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines BAL-003-2 Draft 2 - which looks to establish semi-static Interconnection Frequency Response Obligations (IFROs) for the East, West, Quebec, and ERCOT; replacing the dynamic method requiring…

Spotlight on NERC’s Final 2019-2021 Reliability Standards Development Plan

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines the latest three-year plan submitted by NERC to FERC and the Canadian Provincial Authorities mapping out the standards development activity they expect to process in 2019…

Spotlight on NERC’s Frequency Response Annual Analysis

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC's latest annual technical study analyzing the calculation of Interconnection Frequency Obligation (IFRO) issued to FERC, who imposed the reporting obligation when BAL-003-1 was approved.…

Spotlight on the NERC Standards Taking Effect in the U.S. on January 1

Today's LiveWire Spotlight serves to remind Clients of the new balancing, Facility interconnection, Transmission planning, and voltage control requirements that become mandatory and effective in the U.S. next month. Four…

Spotlight on NERC’s FFT and CE Process Annual Status Report

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines NERC's most recent yearly submission to FERC outlining the progress of the Find, Fix, Track, and Report (FFT) and Compliance Exceptions (CE) Programs. The status report…

Spotlight on FERC Order 851 Approving TPL-007-2

Today's LiveWire Spotlight addresses FERC Order 851 approving TPL-007-2, which has been extensively re-written to better address the threat of geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) to BES equipment and stability. In the…

Spotlight on the Informal Review of the CIP Virtualization Standards

Today's LiveWire Spotlight assesses NERC's first proposal at new CIP requirements specifying the allowable architectures and security risks of virtualization technologies. They apply to services which perform remote Operating System,…

Spotlight on NERC’s 2018 Grid Security Conference

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC’s 2018 Grid Security Conference, the eighth annual gathering of cyber and physical security experts discussing emerging BES security trends, policies, and lessons learned. The…

Spotlight on NERC’s Breaker Preparation for Severe Cold Weather Webinar

Today's LiveWire Spotlight evaluates NERC's latest webinar on extreme cold weather readiness awareness. The content is closely related to two NERC’s Lesson Learned describing actual incidents where severe cold weather…

Spotlight on the Third Quarter Compliance and Enforcement Status Report

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the statistics and ancillary information used to analyze the ERO Enterprise’s Compliance and Enforcement organization’s performance during the months of July-September, 2018. Most indicate a…

Spotlight on NERC’s 2018 Situational Awareness Conference

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines NERC’s 2018 Situational Awareness Conference, the sixth annual two-day conference addressing the role of monitoring and state estimation capabilities in BES reliability. Presenters examined major situational…

Spotlight on NERC’s Plan to Address Natural Gas System Disruptions

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC’s plan to address natural gas system disruptions - which builds on the findings and recommendations from a 2017 NERC investigation into the topic. The…

Spotlight on a NERC Lesson Learned – Partial System Collapse

Today's LiveWire Spotlight evaluates the latest NERC’s Lesson Learned concerning a major incident touched off by human error and followed by a series of Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) Misoperations. The…