Related Files
Status
This project was completed on March 22, 2023 with the approval of the Reliability Standards listed below for posting. All remaining Reliability Standards from this project will continue through Track 2.
This page has been updated to include the clean Reliability Standards and Technical Rationales for authorization for posting by the Standards Committee. The remaining standards will follow Track 2 as outlined in the Technical Rationale Transition Plan.
Stakeholders agreed, via the non-binding polls and comments, that there was no compliance language in the GTBs and Technical Rationales in the standards previously posted from March 5 – April 20, 2020. NERC staff will make minor edits and formatting changes to the Technical Rationale documents based on stakeholder comments and provide them to the Standards Committee (SC), per the Technical Rationale Transition Plan.
A 45-day informal comment period for Technical Rationale for Reliability Standards concluded at 8 p.m. Eastern, Monday, April 20, 2020 for the following standards:
BAL-005-1 – Balancing Authority Control
EOP-008-2 – Loss of Control Center Functionality
NUC-001-3 – Nuclear Plant Interface Coordination
TOP-002-4 – Operations Planning
TOP-003-3 – Operational Reliability Data
TOP-010-1(i) – Real-time Reliability Monitoring and Analysis Capabilities
PRC-005-6 - Protection System, Automatic Reclosing, and Sudden Pressure Relaying Maintenance
PRC-006-3 – Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding
PRC-006-SERC-02 – Automatic Underfrequency Load Shedding Requirements
VAR-501-WECC-3.1 – Power System Stabilizer (PSS)
Stakeholders agreed, via the non-binding polls and comments, that there was no compliance language in the GTBs and Technical Rationales in the standards previously posted from November 4 – December 18, 2019. NERC staff will make minor edits and formatting changes to the Technical Rationale documents based on stakeholder comments and provide them to the Standards Committee (SC). Per the Technical Rationale Transition Plan:
· If the Technical Rationale document passes the non-binding poll (using the same criteria as provided in Section 4 of the Standard Processes Manual for Reliability Standards), the SC shall vote to authorize the Technical Rationale document for posting.
· If the Technical Rationale document is authorized for posting by the SC:
o NERC staff shall post the Technical Rationale document to the NERC website on the “Related Information” page associated with the Reliability Standard.
o NERC staff will also add a link to the NERC one-stop-shop for the Technical Rationale document.
The current Reliability Standards template includes a Guidelines and Technical Basis (GTB) section to provide standard drafting teams a mechanism to: (i) explain the technical basis for the associated Reliability Standard (and Requirements therein); and (ii) provide technical guidance for the associated Reliability Standard (and Requirements therein). The ERO Enterprise recognizes that these sections help industry to understand the technology and technical elements in the Reliability Standard. The ERO continues to assess compliance based on the language of the Reliability Standard and the facts and circumstances presented.
With the enactment of the Compliance Guidance Policy, it appears helpful to further clarify the distinction between Implementation Guidance and GTB (or Technical Rationale, as explained below). GTB should focus on technical rationale that assists technical understanding of a requirement and/or Reliability Standard. GTB should not include compliance examples or compliance language, as such information, if needed, should be developed as Implementation Guidance under the Compliance Guidance Policy.
Purpose/Industry Need:
The use of the term “guideline” in GTB has created confusion for some stakeholders on the use of information in this section for guidance in developing compliance approaches. To clarify the intended use of information in this section, and to address that confusion, the Reliability Standards template will be revised to eliminate the GTB section and allow for the creation of a separate document containing the Technical Rationale. The purpose of this project is to further clarify the principles, development, and use of GTB (historically) and Technical Rationale. GTB that already exists in Reliability Standards will be reviewed under these principles when a new version of a Reliability Standard is being drafted and during any Periodic Review process.
