Post-blackout progress highlighted in NERC report

One year after a massive blackout darkened much of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) has prepared a status report that highlights the major actions that NERC and the industry have taken to improve the reliability of the North American bulk electric system.

“As we near the anniversary of the August 14 blackout, the good news is that NERC and the electric industry have taken significant and meaningful steps to improve the reliability of the bulk electric system and reduce the risk of another major blackout,” stated Michehl R. Gent, NERC president and CEO.

“The bad news is that we are still waiting for the passage of legislation by the United States Congress that would make compliance with NERC reliability standards mandatory and enforceable,” said Mr. Gent. “Until that occurs, we will work with the government and the industry to do everything we can to ensure that all entities whose operations affect the operation of the bulk electric grid comply with NERC standards, but that is not a substitute for legislation,” he cautioned.

Earlier this year, NERC and the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force both issued thorough technical reports that examined the causes of the blackout. These reports contained extensive recommendations on a wide range of actions that must be taken to reduce the risk of a similar outage occurring in the future.

A release from NERC stated that the most significant actions that it has taken to date include correcting the direct causes of the blackout, conducting audits of all major system operators to ensure that they are prepared to operate the system reliably, and substantially revising existing reliability standards and developing new ones to ensure that the reliability “rules of the road” are understood and followed by all entities whose operations affect the reliability of the bulk electric system.

According to a NERC, many important initiatives have been completed or are well under way, some will take years to implement.

NERC said it is working closely with the government task force to ensure that all recommendations resulting from these investigations are tracked and implemented. Taken as a whole, these extensive and cooperative efforts will go a long way to reduce the risk of another major outage in North America.

To view the NERC status report and other blackout-related documents, go to: http://www.nerc.com/~filez/blackout.html