RSC 2015-16 Work Plan - Approved by BOD

The following Regional Standards Committee (RSC) Work Plan activities planned for the calendar years of 2015 -2016 will be consistent with the NPCC 2015 and 2016 Business Plans and Budgets, Organizational and Strategic Goals both approved and in draft, and will also continue to be supportive of the ongoing cost effective and results based standards efforts. Also, the Work Plan is responsive to the NERC Reliability Standards Development Process and ERO strategic goals. In 2015-2016 expedited standards project schedules and enhanced periodic reviews of standards with the goal of achieving “steady-state” will be the focus of the RSC.

Core Reliability Standards Committee Functions

• Review, promote, and support the ERO results based standards initiative and ongoing standards development work.

• Promote the results based standards initiative throughout the Northeast.

• Continue to promote NERC’s adoption of its Cost Effective Analysis Process which is based on the NPCC Cost Effective Analysis Procedure.

• Review and participate in the regional standards development process, and base any development or revision of NPCC Regional Reliability Standards on the reliability related needs of the Region or new continent wide ERO standards.

• Coordinate NPCC Regional Standards development with the development of standards appearing in the NERC Reliability Standards Development Plan.

• Monitor NERC’s Reliability Issues Steering Committee (RISC) top reliability related issues and priorities for potential incorporation into NERC standards, removal from standards or for incorporation into guidelines or other non-standards solutions. Provide and coordinate NPCC’s input into those decisions.

• Coordinate NPCC participation in the review and the revision of NERC Standards per Order 693 addressing directives from FERC and any Provincial regulatory directives through the Enhanced Periodic Review process.

• Address emerging issues FERC might have with the NPCC Regional Standard Processes to promote consistency and support the ERO One Enterprise model.

• Manage the development and revision of the regional reliability directories including criteria clarifications as necessary, and review all criteria to ensure consistency with NERC or regional reliability standards.

• Promote the NPCC criteria as being more specific or more stringent. Coordinate efforts with the NPCC Compliance Committee to facilitate the development of the NPCC Criteria Compliance Enforcement Program (CCEP) via Phase 2 of the Directory Project which was initiated to reformat the criteria section of each Directory into measurable NERC style requirements.

• Coordinate and provide input to the development and prioritization of ERO reliability standards within the NERC Reliability Standards Development Plan.

• Conduct thorough reviews of all NERC standards being developed or revised, and coordinate timely comments within the NPCC Region based on reliability needs, results based requirements, Paragraph 81, and FERC directives.

• Develop and submit Standard Authorization Requests (SARs) for revisions when necessary to improve a standard and address reliability related issues for approved or draft standards.

• Develop ballot recommendations or “issues statements” for all NERC standards under development.

• Review and develop ballot recommendations for all NERC Formal Interpretations to standards.

• Provide guidance for NPCC regional standard drafting teams in critical areas of results based standards, Violation Severity Level, and Violation Risk Factor development as well as in ensuring quality.

• Respond to FERC and Provincial filings and interrogatories on issues related to regional standards.

• Serve as a liaison for the Northeast to the NERC Reliability Issues Steering Committee for all new and emerging reliability risks to the BES.

• Participate in the proceedings of various NERC groups to contribute to the continual improvement to NERC standards and processes. These groups include but are not limited to:

o NERC Standards Committee (SC)

o NERC Standards Committee Process Subcommittee (SCPS)

o NERC Project Management Oversight Subcommittee (PMOS)

o NERC Functional Model Advisory Group (FMAG)

o NERC SAR and Standards Drafting Teams (SDTs)

o NERC Reliability Issues Steering Committee (RISC)

‍

See the attachment for more details.