On February 27, 2019, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), along with the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council, Inc. (FRCC) and the SERC Reliability Corporation (SERC), jointly filed a petition at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to dissolve and transfer FRCC’s regional entity delegated authority to SERC. NERC, which is charged by FERC to be the nation’s Electric Reliability Organization, seeks FERC approval to, among other things, transfer all NERC registered entities currently in the FRCC Regional Entity footprint to SERC. SERC is one of the original eight Regional Entities under NERC jurisdiction, and is geographically contiguous with the FRCC footprint.
The FRCC Regional Entity dissolution is the second such Regional Entity to dismantle itself and transfer its registered entities to neighboring Regional Entities. In May 2018, FERC approved the dissolution of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Regional Entity in which registered entities within the SPP Regional Entity footprint were transferred to the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) and to SERC. FERC’s approval of that dissolution was premised on the effective and efficient administration of bulk-power system reliability as required under the Federal Power Act.
The joint petition now before FERC to dissolve the FRCC Regional Entity is preceded by a NERC determination in 2017 that Regional Entities should be separate corporate bodies from their NERC-registered entities. A prior FERC audit also urged the FRCC Regional Entity to be more independent of its registered entities’ member services activities.[1] Similar to the SPP Regional Entity dissolution, NERC has entered into a Termination Agreement with FRCC Regional Entity for the dissolution that outlines the new SERC footprint as well as special assessments for the administration of the termination and the migration of regional entities from FRCC to SERC. FERC has not yet docketed the joint petition (available here).
For more information on this and other electric reliability matters, please contact Kristen Connolly McCullough, Lisa S. Gast or Sean Neal.
[1] See Order Approving Audit Report, Determining Issue of Separation of Functions, and Directing Compliance and Other Corrective Actions, Docket No. PA09-7-000, 131 FERC ¶ 61,262 at P. 3(June 23, 2010).
