Facilities Design, Connections and Maintenance Reliability Standards

Pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Commission approves three Reliability Standards concerning Facilities Design, Connections and Maintenance that were developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission- certified Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) responsible for developing and enforcing mandatory Reliability Standards. Further, pursuant to section 215(d)(5), we direct the ERO to develop a modification to one of the three Reliability Standards that are being approved as mandatory and enforceable. The three FAC Reliability Standards, designated FAC-010-1, FAC-011-1 and FAC-014-1, require planning authorities and reliability coordinators to establish methodologies to determine system operating limits for the Bulk-Power System in the planning and operation horizons. The Commission also approves a regional difference for the Western Interconnection administered by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council which is incorporated into FAC-010-1 and FAC-011-1. In addition, the Commission accepts three new terms for the NERC Glossary of Terms Used in Reliability Standards, remands another proposed term, and directs the ERO to submit modifications to its proposed Violation Risk Factors consistent with our prior orders.