NERC's Standards Committee meeting in Houston. | NERC

March 22, 2024

Hello from ERO Insider, your source for the latest news on the world of electric reliability! We hope you’re all having a wonderful week, particularly now that spring has officially begun with the passage of the vernal equinox on Tuesday. By the way, if you ever tried and failed to make an egg balance during the equinox, don’t feel bad — there’s actually nothing special about the first day of spring that makes eggs stand up more easily. It’s still possible to balance them, mind you. Just no more so than any other day. 

Now that we’ve addressed that bit of childhood trauma, on with this week’s updates, starting with the meeting of NERC’s Standards Committee in Houston. Holden Mann brings you a report on the committee’s actions, which focused on moving forward with multiple standards projects facing FERC-mandated deadlines. (See NERC Standards Teams Pushing to Meet FERC Deadlines.) 

FERC also held its monthly open meeting this week, where it announced plans to deepen its relationship with state regulators. Rich Heidorn Jr. has the details on how the commission hopes its new initiative will help address electric reliability and resource adequacy, along with many other issues. (See FERC, State Regulators Renew Collaboration.) 

Industry stakeholders signaled this week they’re still not willing to accept NERC’s proposed reliability standard to require internal network security monitoring on grid cyber systems. But the standard did get significantly closer to passage than its last ballot round. Click through to see what issues respondents still have. (See Industry Sends Back NERC Cyber Monitoring Standards.) 

Finally, Steve Huntoon of Energy Counsel LLP has some choice words for a recent publication warning that the U.S. is “running out of power.” Follow the link for his breakdown of why the article represents a distraction from the real work that’s needed. (See Counterflow: Hair (and Pants) on Fire.) 

That’s all for now, but we’ll be back all next week bringing you all the news you can use from the ERO Enterprise and beyond. Keep checking back throughout the week, and we’ll see you on Friday with another weekly newsletter. Until then, stay safe and have a great week! 

Upcoming Stakeholder Meetings:

• 3/25/24: Talk with Texas RE: Supply Chain Series
• 3/27/24: SERC Members and Board of Directors Meetings
• 3/27/24: SERC March Board of Directors/Members Meeting
• 4/2/24: Talk with Texas RE: GridEx VII Report
• 4/10/24: Talk with Texas RE: Coordinated Oversight