The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) joined a broad group of industry groups to challenge a directive from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that would seek to substitute policy positions for industry expertise in protecting the reliability of the bulk power grid.

When Congress created the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, lawmakers expressly gave NERC authority to write and approve reliability standards for the bulk power grid.  Under the law, FERC has authority to compel NERC to address reliability issues, such as vegetation management or reserve margins; FERC has no authority to dictate the content of those standards. 

Demanding that NERC change its rules of procedures because FERC did not like the outcome of a vote by the NERC voting body constitutes an attempted end-run around the plain language of the Energy Policy Act limiting FERC’s authority in this area.  This Request for Rehearing seeks both to protect the legislative intent behind the Energy Policy Act and the notion that expertise should trump policy views in safeguarding reliability of the bulk power grid. 

This Request for Rehearing was submitted jointly by NRECA and the American Public Power Association, the Edison Electric Institute, the Canadian Electricity Association, the Large Public Power Council, the Transmission Access Policy Study Group, and the Electricity Consumers Resource Council.