Averting Disaster - Grid Reliability Issues and Standards

National Energy Restructuring ConferenceApril 1, 2004Washington, DC

NERC Actions to Address the August 14, 2003, Blackout

National Energy Restructuring ConferenceApril 1, 2004Washington, DC

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NERC Control Areas

4 1:31:34 p.m.1:31:34 p.m.

August 14, 2003What Happened?

765kVDC

Voltage

MontrealOttawa

Toronto

DetroitCleveland

AkronCanton

Buffalo

New YorkPittsburg

Toledo

2:02 p.m.3:05:41 to 3:41:33 p.m.3:45:33 to 4:08:58 p.m.4:08:58 to 4:10:27 p.m.4:10:00 to 4:10:38 p.m.4:10:40 to 4:10:44 p.m.4:10:44 to 4:13:00 p.m.

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Investigation OrganizationNERC Steering

Group

MAAC/ECAR/NPCC Coordinating Group

MAAC

ECAR

NPCC

MEN Study Group

Project Planning and Support

Sequence of Events

Data Requests and Management

Investigation Team Lead

System Modeling and Simulation Analysis

NERC & Regional Standards/Procedures

& Compliance

Transmission System Performance,

Protection, ControlMaintenance & Damage

Operations - Tools, SCADA/EMS

Communications Op Planning

System Planning, Design, & Studies

Root Cause AnalysisCooper Systems

Generator Performance, Protection, Controls

Maintenance & Damage

U.S – CanadaTask Force

Vegetation/ROW Management

Frequency/ACE

Restoration

Investigation Process Review

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Key Findings of Investigation

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Causes of the Blackout

● Inadequate Situational Awareness

● Failure to manage tree growth in ROWs

● Failure of Reliability Coordinators diagnostic support

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Violations of NERC Reliability Standards

Failure to return system to safe operating state within 30 minutes

Failure to notify others of impending emergency

State estimator was not used

Inadequate training

Reliability coordinator did not notify others

Reliability coordinator did not have adequate monitoring capability

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Key Findings● Several violations● Compliance monitoring

process is inadequate● Differing interpretations● Repeats past mistakes● Data deficiencies in models● Planning inadequate● Technologies inconsistent● Communications not

effective

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NERC Guiding Principles

● Specific information on all violations

● Improve compliance

● Greater transparency to violations

● Work closely with FERC, states, provinces

● Ensure public interest is met

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NERC Blackout Recommendations

● Corrective actions

● Strategic initiatives

● Technical initiatives

0

400

800

1200

1600

12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00

Time - EDT

Flo

ws

(M

W)

Harding - Chamberlin

Hanna - JuniperStar - South Canton

Sammis - Star

East Lake 5 Trip

Harding - Chamberlin Line Trip

Hanna - Juniper Line Trip

Sammis - Star Line Trip

Star - South Canton Line Trip

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Corrective Actions

● Specific actions to correct the direct causes of the blackout

● Certify actions completed by June 30

● Experts to be available to assist

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Strategic Initiatives

● Readiness audits

● Performance audits

● Vegetation-related outage reporting

● Recommendations implementation tracking

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Readiness Audits

● Audit all control areas and reliability coordinators

● Conduct every 3-years

● Reports to the board

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Performance Reviews

● Modify NERC Compliance Enforcement Program Regions to submit results to NERC Provide list of non-compliant entities

● Regular confidential reports to the Board Specific violations Results of audits

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Vegetation Outage Reports

● Transmission owners to report tree contacts to Regions (230+ kV)

● Regions report to NERC

● Use WECC as model

● Regions to conduct annual vegetation management surveys

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Recommendations Tracking

● NERC and Regions will track: Implementation of recommendations Compliance audits Lessons learned from system

disturbances Use successful regional processes as

model

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Technical Initiatives

● Operator & reliability coordinator emergency response training

● Reactive power & voltage control● Cascade mitigation● RC & CA responsibilities● Real-time operating tools● Restoration review● Time-synchronized measurements ● Reevaluate system design, planning & operating

criteria● System modeling & data exchange standards

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So Where Are We?

●NERC Steering Group – technical investigation is ongoing

●Recommendations approved by NERC standing committees, stakeholders, and Board of Trustees

● Implementing recommendations

●Finalize technical report this spring

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Issues to be Resolved● Role of FERC, NRCan

● Non-jurisdictional entities

● Funding: resources and $$$

● Migrating old standards to new

● Recommendations in final report

● Voluntary vs. mandatory reliability standards or: Will reliability legislation ever pass??

NERC Actions to Address the August 14, 2003, Blackout

National Energy Restructuring ConferenceApril 1, 2004Washington, DC