Electric Reliability Organization Interpretations of Interconnection Reliability Operations and Coordination and Transmission Operations Reliability Standards

Pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hereby approves the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) interpretation of the Commission-approved Reliability Standards, IRO-005-1, Reliability Coordination--Current-Day Operations, Requirement R12, and TOP-005-1, Operational Reliability Information, Requirement R3. Specifically, the interpretation finds that a transmission owner must report a Special Protection System that is operating with only one communication channel in service to the reliability coordinator and neighboring systems upon request, or when the loss of the communication channel will result in the failure of the Special Protection System to operate as designed.