By Shaun Rohret, Senior Reliability Specialist, NERC Services

As the winter of 2022-23 is approaching, there is a lot of activity at NERC based around a new Extreme Cold Weather Preparedness Standard. EOP 11-2 has been implemented with an effective date of April 1, 2023, but it has been determined that this standard is inadequate and the development of new standard: EOP-012-1 – Extreme Cold Weather Preparedness and Operations, and a revision to EOP-11-2, EOP-11-3 has been set in motion. The following is a summary from NERC:

The primary purpose of this project is to address reliability related findings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NERC, and Regional Entity Joint Staff Inquiry into the February 2021 Cold Weather Grid Operations. The project scope will address nine recommendations for new or enhanced NERC Reliability Standards proposed by the report.

The NERC Board of Trustees (Board) issued a resolution in November 2021 for the development of standards under this project be completed in accordance with the staged timelines recommended by the joint inquiry team, as follows​:

A Technical Rational and justification for EOP-012-1 was released in August.

New and revised Reliability Standards were submitted for regulatory approval as required before the Winter of 2022/2023, for the Board’s consideration in October 2022. A final ballot was open through Friday, September 30, 2022. It appears that the majority of the votes were affirmative for the following standards and implementation plan:

• EOP-011-3 – Emergency Operations
• EOP-012-1 – Extreme Cold Weather Preparedness and Operations
• Implementation Plan

The next stage will require that new and revised Reliability Standards be submitted for regulatory approval before Winter 2023/2024: development completed by September 30, 2023, for the Board’s consideration in October 2023.