Are you ready for the upcoming changes to NERC’s Rules of Procedure?

In the next few months, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, is seeking final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on their revisions to the Rules of Procedure (ROP) to lower the threshold for generation facilities required to register with them. Currently, owners and operators of generation facilities are only required to register if they have an aggregate nameplate of greater than 75 MVA, delivering capacity at a voltage greater than 100 kV.  NERC’s new rules, if adopted by FERC, will lower this threshold for Inverter Based Resources (IBRs) to 20 MVA and 60 kV, respectively. 

What does this mean for current power plant owners and operators? Not only will most new power plants now have to register, but because there is no grandfather clause for currently operating plants, over a thousand renewable facilities need to become compliant. Existing facilities that will be scoped into NERC due to the amended registration criteria will need to be registered and compliant by May 2026.  Noncompliance carries a hefty fine of up to one million dollars a day. Registration preparation may require significant time, so it is imperative to start the process as soon as possible.

RES is uniquely positioned to handle these changes. In addition to already having a NERC compliance program in place, we have years of industry experience which we use to provide consultancy services for operational solar, wind and battery storage facilities. In response to these changes, we have assembled a team of NERC compliance experts, some of whom have extensive experience working on the NERC CIP Standards Development Team, where they played integral roles in training many of its auditors, to provide support for our customers.

Our NERC regulatory compliance services can be offered as part of a larger asset management agreement or as a standalone contract. In addition, our team is nimble enough to provide industry leading services for both small and large facilities.  

Furthermore, as one of the largest renewables construction contractors in North America, we will be taking steps to ensure that building sites are designed with NERC in mind, so clients are set up for success.

To find out more about how we can support you, please contact James Holler, Regional Manager – Services at [email protected]

James is a NERC expert with over 33 years of industry experience. Some of his accomplishments include creating NERC/FERC-approved training programs on sabotage reporting, GO/GOP auditor training, and Critical Infrastructure Protection Auditing. He served as the PMO Process/Deployment Lead for the largest NERC CIP project ever undertaken in North America for PG&E and obtained the first-ever FAA UAV waiver/pilot’s license for NERC-specific drone programs.