Massive and disruptive winter storms in recent years are prompting North America's electric grid watchdog to take an unprecedented step to guard the bulk power system.
On May 15, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. will issue a Level 3 action alert — its highest alert level — calling on generation and transmission owners to report their extreme weather mitigation plans for next winter. The move marks NERC's first issuance of a Level 3 alert.
The pending action follows several harsh cold-weather events in recent years, including a winter storm that slammed Texas in February 2021 and another cold blast in late 2022. The extreme weather and ensuing grid disruptions prompted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expedite the approval of cold weather reliability standards in February.
NERC's alert, which its board approved May 11, requires several "essential actions," according to a recent presentation from NERC staff.
Before next winter, generation owners must calculate the extreme cold weather temperature for each plant location and identify freeze protection measures for critical components. Plant owners will also need to determine which units can operate at extremely cold temperatures and those requiring additional freeze protections and identify any of their plants that experienced a cold weather reliability event in winter 2022-2023.
Generation owners must share their responses with relevant balancing authorities and transmission owners and alert them if freeze protection measures will not be implemented before next winter.
The alert will also make transmission owners update their operating plans to minimize overlap of circuits for manual load shed and those used for under-frequency load shed or under-voltage load shed, the presentation said.
Balancing authorities will also be asked to update their operating plans to include provisions for transmission owners to carry out controlled manual load shed.
Reports from affected entities are due Oct. 6.
Severe winter weather has become a growing grid reliability challenge in parts of the US. In its last winter reliability assessment in late 2022, NERC warned of potential challenges from higher peak-demand projections, poor weatherization, fuel supply problems and limited natural gas infrastructure. Some industry groups have also flagged the loss of coal-fired generation as a threat, with a substantial amount of coal capacity retiring due to market and regulatory pressures.
Level 3 alerts from NERC include actions deemed "essential" to bulk power system reliability and require alert recipients to file their responses with the grid watchdog. By contrast, Level 1 advisories are purely informational and warn registered entities of potential issues, with no responses required. Level 2 alerts provide specific recommendations to address possible reliability problems, with responses to NERC required.
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