FERC's notice published February 8 proposed approval of PRC-012-2, a reliability standard addressing remedial action schemes. Comments were due April 10. The distinction between proposing and approving matters because an earlier Commission decision had already approved a revised definition of those schemes; that earlier decision did not approve this later standard. [2017-02331][2015-29971]

Order 818, issued in November 2015, approved the revised definition alongside two other reliability standards. It also accepted an approach under which the older Special Protection System term would be retired once standards were fully updated to reference the revised definition. This was a conditional terminology transition, not evidence that every related obligation instantly changed. [2017-02331][2015-29971]

The 2017 proposal concerns how schemes would be reviewed and followed over time. FERC described reliability-coordinator review that must finish before a new or functionally modified scheme entered service. It also described analysis of each operation or misoperation, submission of results to the coordinator, and corrective-action plans when deficiencies were identified. [2017-02331][2015-29971]

Periodic performance testing would run on six-year intervals for normal schemes and twelve-year intervals for limited-impact schemes. FERC proposed clarifying that the standard would not modify or supersede separate system-performance duties, including for limited-impact schemes. These are complementary agency records, not independent demonstrations of safety. For this February 12 account, they establish a prior definition decision and a pending proposal, while leaving actual performance and any later adoption outside the evidence. [2017-02331][2015-29971]

Source documents

  1. Remedial Action Schemes Reliability Standardhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-02-08/html/2017-02331.htm
  2. Revisions to Emergency Operations Reliability Standards; Revisions to Undervoltage Load Shedding Reliability Standards; Revisions to the Definition of Remedial Action Scheme and Related Reliability Standardshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-11-25/html/2015-29971.htm