Wayne Sipperly Jr., Executive Coordinator, North American Generator Forum
NAES is a member of the North American Generator Forum (NAGF) which provides a network of generation industry compliance, operations, equipment technical experts whose collective knowledge and expertise is available to support your reliability/resiliency efforts. The NAGF has several on-going initiatives of interest to membership and the generation community:
- NERC Project 2019-04 Modifications to PRC-005-6
Project 2019-04 Modifications to PRC-005-6: https://www.nerc.com/pa/Stand/Pages/Project-2019-04-Modifications-to-PRC-005-6.aspx has announced the team roster which include representatives from AEP, Duke Energy, Exelon, and Xcel Energy (NAGF members). The SAR, developed and submitted by the NAGF, requests to clarify the applicability of PRC-005-6 to the protective functions within an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) and provide the prescribed maintenance activities. The drafting team is in the process of review all responses received during the initial comment period and determining the next steps of the project.
- NERC Project 2019-06 Extreme Cold Weather
The NAGF is actively involved with this project https://www.nerc.com/pa/Stand/Pages/Project%202019-06%20Cold%20Weather.aspx, providing comments on the Extreme Cold Weather Preparedness SAR and discussing the NAGF comments in detail with NERC to ensure the generator perspective is heard and understood. A number of NAGF members have been nominated or self-nominated for the Project 2019-06 Drafting Team to help ensure generator segment participation.
- NAGF and NATF PRC-027-1 Implementation Guidance Collaboration
The NATF has an existing Protection System Coordination document which they are revising to incorporate guidance related to PRC-027-1: Coordination of Protection Systems for Performance during Faults. The NAGF is working with the NATF on the “Neighboring Entity Coordination” section of the document as it applies to generation – transmission data exchange and communication paths/methods. The anticipated deliverables resulting from this collaboration include a generation-transmission protection system settings data exchange template and generic protection system coordination/information exchange procedure for use by NAGF members.
- CIP-013-1 Supply Chain
The NAGF is collaborating with NERC, the NATF, and others to develop a streamlined process to evaluate a supplier’s supply chain cyber security risk. This effort includes discussion/coordination with OEMs and equipment vendors. The NAGF Security Practices/CIP Working Group is developing generic CIP-013 Supply Chain procurement language for NAGF members to use. This working group also provides the opportunity for members to share their Supply Chain practices.
The NAGF is an independent, member-driven, non-profit organization of generator owners and operators, focused on NERC and other grid reliability issues. Its mission is to promote the safe, reliable operation of the generator segment of the bulk power system through generator owner and operator collaboration with others who have a vested interest in the reliable operation of the bulk power system.
Additional information on the above activities as well as features such as the NAGF Member Discussion Board are available at the members-only NAGF Groupsite: https://www.generatorforum.org
Participation in the NAES membership is open to all NAES managed plants. Please contact Reliability@naes.com if you would like to enroll your NAES managed plant.