Agenda
Operating Committee
116-390 Village Blvd.
Princeton, NJ 08540
609.452.8060 | www.nerc.com
March 12, 2008 | 1–5 p.m.
March 13, 2008 | 8 a.m.–noon
The Westin City Center
650 North Pearl Street
Dallas, Texas 75201
214-979-9000
Item / Leader / Action /1. Administration / Secretary
a. Quorum
b. Procedures
c. Introduction of Members and Guests
d. Agenda / Chairman / Approve
2. Consent Agenda / Chairman / Approve
a. Minutes of December 12-13, 2007 meeting
b. State/Municipal Utility Representative
3. FYI
a. NERC Board of Trustees / Vice Chairman
b. Operating Committee Work Plan / Vice Chairman
c. NERC Board Technology Committee / Stan Johnson
d. Operating Committee Appointments / Chairman
i. OC/PC Subgroup Nomination Form / Chairman
ii. Reliability Fundamentals Working Group / Chairman
iii. Integration of Variable Generation Task Force / Warren Frost
iv. Reliability Metrics Working Group / Jason Shaver
4. Operating Committee Charter Revisions / Chairman / Approve. Follow-up from the joint meeting.
5. Critical Infrastructure Protection / Stan Johnson
a. NERC Situation Awareness Tool / Status Report
b. North American SynchroPhasor Initiative / Follow-up from joint meeting
c. National Response Framework / Information
6. Reliability Readiness Program
a. Reliability Readiness Program Work Plan / Kevin Conway / Discussion.
b. Role of the Operating Committee / Chairman / Discussion
7. Functional Model Working Group / Steve Crutchfield / Follow-up from joint meeting
8. Organization Registration and Certification / Lucius Burris / Discussion
9. Reliability-based Control Standard Drafting Team / Doug Hils / Discussion
10. Training / John Taylor / Endorse Personnel Subcommittee’s training model
11. Education and Certification Programs / Martin Sidor / Discussion
12. Events Analysis / Bob Cummings / Discussion
13. NERC/NAESB Coordination / Andy Rodriquez / Discussion
a. TLR Procedure
b. ATC/AFC and CBM/TRM Revisions
c. Balancing Authority Controls
14. Real-time Tools Best Practices Task Force / Jack Kerr / Approve
15. Interchange Subcommittee / John Ciza / Discussion
a. TSIN Registry
b. Eastern Interconnection Interchange Tool
16. Resources Subcommittee / Terry Bilke
a. Time Monitor Reference Document / Approve
b. Access to Performance Data / Information
c. FERC Request for Access to Inadvertent Data / Discussion
17. Operating Reliability Subcommittee
a. Flowgate Administration Reference Document / David Zwergel / Approve
18. Next meeting – June 4–5, 2008 (Tentatively Toronto, Ontario) / Secretary
Operating Committee Meeting Agenda
March 12–13, 2008 2
Operating Committee Meeting Agenda
March 12–13, 2008 2
Item 1. Administration
Item 1.a Announcement of Quorum
The secretary will announce whether a quorum (two-thirds of the voting members) is in place. NOTE: The committee cannot conduct business without a quorum. Please be prepared to stay for the entire meeting.
Item 1.b Procedures
The NERC Antitrust Compliance Guidelines, Operating Committee charter, and a summary of Parliamentary Procedures are attached for reference. The secretary will answer questions regarding these procedures.
Attachments
· Antitrust Guidelines
· Operating Committee Charter
· Parliamentary Procedures
Item 1.c Introduction of Members and Guests
The chairman will ask the committee members and guests to introduce themselves.
Attachment
Operating Committee roster
Item 1.d Approval of Agenda
Action
Approve meeting agenda.
Background
The chairman will review the agenda, ask for amendments, and then approval.
Item 2. Consent Agenda
The consent agenda allows the Operating Committee to approve routine items that would not normally need discussion. Any OC member may ask the chairman to remove an item from the consent agenda for formal discussion and action.
Item 2.a Minutes of December 12–13, 2007 Meeting
Action
Approve the attached document
Attachment
Minutes of December 12-13, 2007 Operating Committee meeting
Item 2.b State/Municipal Utility Representative
The secretary will announce the ballot results to elect a representative for the State/Municipal Utility sector. The elected representative will fill the unexpired term of Mr. Kevin Conway, who resigned.
Action
Approve
Item 3. FYI
These items are for the committee’s information. The committee is free to raise any of these items for discussion.
Item 3.a NERC Board of Trustees
Vice Chairman Holeman will provide an overview of the February 12, 2008 Board of Trustees meeting.
Item 3.b Operating Committee Work Plan
Vice Chairman Holeman will review the Operating Committee’s work plan.
Attachment
Operating Committee Work Plan
Item 3.c NERC Board of Trustees Technology Committee
Stan Johnson, secretary of the NERC Board of Trustees Technology Committee, will review highlights from the Technology Committee’s February 11, 2008 meeting.
Item 3.d Operating Committee Appointments
Item 3.d.i. OC/PC Subgroup Nomination Form
The officers of the Operating and Planning Committees developed a subgroup nomination form to facilitate the creation of task forces and working groups.
Attachment
OC/PC Subgroup Nomination Form
Item 3.d.ii. Reliability Fundamentals Working Group
The chairman will review the purpose and scope of the Reliability Fundamentals Working Group.
Attachment
Scope – Reliability Fundamentals Working Group
Item 3.d.iii. Integrating Variable Generation Task Force
Mr. Warren Frost, chairman of the Integrating Variable Generation Task Force, will provide an overview of task force activities.
Attachment
Integrating Variable Generation Task Force Roster
Item 3.d.iv. Reliability Metrics Working Group
Mr. Jason Shaver, chairman of the Reliability Metrics Working Group, will provide an overview of working group activities.
Attachment
Reliability Metrics Working Group Roster
Item 4. Operating Committee Charter Revisions
Action
Approve.
This is a follow-up from the joint OC/PC meeting item.
Attachment
Operating Committee Charter (red-line)
Operating Committee Charter (clean)
Background
At its October 23, 2007 meeting, the Board of Trustees asked NERC staff to develop the common elements of an appropriate guidelines development process and work to have the committees develop guidelines in accordance with those common elements. The officers of the Compliance and Certification Committee (CCC), the Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee (CIPC), the Operating Committee (OC), the Planning Committee (PC), and the Standards Committee (SC) agreed upon a common process to be followed by NERC’s technical committees (CIPC, OC, and PC). Appendix 4 in the attached draft red-line OC charter contains this process.
The following table delineates all changes in the attached draft redline charter:
Change / Language changed / Reason /Section 2.2 Advice and Recommendations. / Added: “Issue reliability guidelines in accordance with the process described in Appendix 4.” / Section 2 lists the OC’s functions, and issuing reliability guidelines is an added function.
Section 3.4.d under “Selection” / Modified item d. of the membership selection requirements:
“A particular organization, including its affiliates, may not have more than one member on the committee.” / Clarified that affiliated organizations are considered as one organization for membership purposes.
Change / Language changed / Reason /
Section 3.7 Proxies / Modified this section as follows:
“A member of the committee may give a proxy only to a person who is a member registered in not affiliated with the same sectororganization as another committee member. This provision is consistent with Section 3.4.d. Each voting member of the committee shall have one vote on any matter coming before the committee that requires a vote.” / Committee members need not be NERC members, so they do not necessarily have a sector. The existing language is therefore improper on this point and was stricken. However, just as two members cannot be from the same organization, neither can a member and a proxy. Therefore, this language was added.
Appendix 3 / Added an entire new Appendix 3 that contains the OC’s approval process for reliability guidelines. / Added to comply with the NERC Board of Trustees request as discussed above.
Item 5. Critical Infrastructure Protection
Stan Johnson, manager of Situation Awareness and Infrastructure Security, will lead a discussion of the following topics.
Item 5.a NERC Situation Awareness Tool
At the December 2008 Operating Committee meeting, Stan Johnson and Scott Mix (managers of Situation Awareness and Infrastructure Security) explained the purpose of the Situation Awareness Tool. Mr. Johnson will provide a status report.
Item 5.b North American SynchroPhasor Initiative
This is a follow-up from the joint OC/PC meeting item.
Item 5.c National Response Framework
Mr. Johnson will review the highlights of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Response Framework.
Purpose: The National Response Framework presents the guiding principles that enable all response partners to prepare for and provide a unified national response to disasters and emergencies ¾ from the smallest incident to the largest catastrophe. The Framework establishes a comprehensive, national, all-hazards approach to domestic incident response.
Additional information is available at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nrf/aboutNRF.htm.
Item 6. Reliability Readiness Program
Item 6.a Reliability Readiness Program Work Plan
Kevin Conway, reliability readiness evaluator, will provide an overview of the Reliability Readiness Program Work Plan.
Item 6.b Role of the Operating Committee
Chairman Mayo will lead a discussion of the role of the Operating Committee in the Reliability Readiness Program.
Background (Excerpt of the Operating Committee charter)
3. Support to the Reliability Readiness Program. Provide technical support, guidance, and advice to NERC’s Reliability Readiness Program (see also NERC Rules of Procedure, Section 700, “Reliability Readiness Evaluation and Improvement program, and Appendix 7, “Reliability Readiness Evaluation and Improvement Program Procedure”).
a. General
· Develop criteria for measuring program success, and review the program against those criteria.
· Recommend actions to other NERC programs (standards, compliance, assessments, training, etc.) based on lessons learned and trends from readiness evaluations and examples of excellence
b. Readiness Evaluations
· Review readiness evaluations for trends and recommend new or different types of evaluations or changes in processes or metrics, including:
§ Readiness criteria
§ Guidelines for reporting and disclosure, and
§ Guidelines for consistency and relevancy of evaluations:
· Between comparable entities, and
· Through time
· Provide guidance to the readiness evaluations process
c. Examples of Excellence
· Review and discuss the examples of excellence for lessons learned
· Support information exchange within the industry on examples of excellence
Item 7. Functional Model Working Group
Action
Discussion. (Follow-up from the joint meeting)
Steve Crutchfield, standards development coordinator, will respond to committee questions related the development of version 4 of the Functional Model.
Item 8. Organization Registration and Certification
Discussion
Lucius Burris, chairman of the Organization Registration and Certification Subcommittee (ORCS), will provide an overview of its efforts to develop registration and certification requirements for balancing authorities, transmission operators, and reliability coordinators. The timeline for developing revised rule of procedure 500 is reflected in the following table.
Organizational Certification Process Project
Development Timeline
September 12, 2007 / Joint Compliance and Certification Committee (CCC) & Standards Committee (SC) meeting, translate interim standards into a process/procedure:● Transmission Operator Certification Standards (ORG 001-008)
● Balancing Authority Certification Standards (ORG 009-018)
● Reliability Coordinator Certification Standards (ORG 020-027)
● Appointed a subcommittee to perform this task (ORCS)
● Held first ORCS meeting September 13 to establish schedule
October 9 & 10, 2007 / 2nd ORCS meeting
● Developed 1st draft of RoP 500, Appendix 5, & questionnaires
● Made forms & questionnaires separate from Appendix 5
● Revised schedule & process flow diagram
October 25, 2007 / Submit solicitation for informal comments
● Web site developed to communicate changes
● NERC members, roster, & coordinators
● Regional compliance managers
December 11–13, 2007 / Meet in Orlando
● Review stakeholder comments
● Incorporate comments and develop first rough draft
● Lucius to provide CCC update on December 13
January 23 & 24, 2008 / Meet in Salt Lake City
● Review revised certification process and develop draft for NERC compliance vice president (VP)
● Provide draft and comment resolution report
January 28, 2008 / Provide NERC VP the draft for review and comment
February 4 , 2008 / Provide CCC package for review
February 14 , 2008 / ORCS chair to present draft to CCC for review and approval to place draft on the NERC Web site for 45-day public comments (with the ORCS)
February 22 , 2008 / Place draft on NERC Web site for public comments per NERC bylaws Article XI section 2
March 18 &19, 2008 / Meet in conjunction with the CCC meeting in Salt Lake City
● Review public comments to date
● Revise certification process based on comments
● ORCS chair to provide CCC update on project
April 7, 2008 / 45-day public comment due date
April 15 & 16, 2008 / ORCS to meet in Atlanta
● Review and incorporate all substantive public comments
● Develop package for NERC vice presidentfor board presentation
April 28, 2008 / Provide final package and draft of RoP 500 and its appendix for CCC approval to present to the Board of Trustees (Provide package 1 week earlier for review)
May 12, 2008 / Present the final draft package to the board for approval (Provide package 1 week earlier for review)
Item 9. Reliability-based Control Standard Drafting Team
Discussion
Doug Hils, chairman of the Reliability-based Control Standard Drafting Team, will provide a status report of this standard development effort.
Background (Summary of Purpose/Industry Need)
This project includes expanding on the work already done in developing the draft BAL-007 through BAL-011 by adding requirements to address the following concerns:
· To support corrective action by the balancing authority when excessive Area Control Error (ACE) (as determined by this standard) may be contributing to or causing action to be taken to correct an SOL/IROL problem.
· To prevent interconnection frequency excursions of short duration attributed to the ramping of on- and off-peak interchange transactions.
· To support timely transmission congestion relief by requiring corrective load/generation management by the balancing authority(ies) within a defined time frame when participating in transmission loading relief procedures.
· To address the directives of FERC Order 693.
· To ensure that when finalized the standards associated with this project conform to the latest versions of NERC’s Reliability Standards Development Procedure, the Sanction Guidelines of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, and the ERO Rules of Procedure.