The Federal Energy Reliability Commission (FERC) issued a preliminary assessment in May 2006 of the North American Electric Reliability Council's (NERC's) proposed reliability standards. NERC filed 102 standards on April 4, 2006, with its application to become the electric reliability organization (ERO) under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and asked the FERC to approve the standards to become effective Jan. 1, 2007, or thereafter. This is an important step toward implementation of mandatory reliability standards for the nation's bulk-power system.

The FERC staff's assessment finds that NERC's existing program of voluntary standards represents “a solid foundation on which to maintain and improve the nation's reliability.” However, the report does cite various deficiencies in current NERC standards and invites public comment as well as NERC comment by June 26, 2006. In many instances, the deficiencies cited are among those identified by NERC, and are the subject of a work plan NERC has proposed.

Among the FERC staff's concerns about the standards were: blackout report recommendations, elements of ambiguity, technical adequacy, measures and compliance, undue negative impact on competition, fill-in-the-blank standards and applicability.

“The release of the staff preliminary assessment marks the next step in the transition from voluntary to mandatory reliability standards,” said Rick Sergel, NERC president and CEO. “We look forward to working with the Commission and its staff, governmental authorities in Canada, and all industry stakeholders to identify the priorities, establish a timetable for putting a solid foundation of mandatory reliability standards in place promptly and improve those standards over time.”

The staff assessment outlines a goal of strengthening the reliability standards over the next five years to the point where bulk-power-system reliability is assured.