Washington, D.C. – The committee’s hearing today emphasized the strong progress the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electricity Reliability Council are making in implementing the reliability provisions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Senator Craig Thomas, R-WY, chaired the full committee hearing.

FERC has met all of the deadlines Congress set in the EPAct05 and is moving forward to certify NERC as the single Electricity Reliability Organization. FERC has also begun an open and inclusive process for establishing mandatory reliability standards that will strengthen regional electricity grids without putting an undue burden on small utilities or consumers.

NERC is compiling a comprehensive list of owners, operators and users whose actions or omissions can impact the system, as required by the energy bill. They have drafted proposed reliability standards and seeks broad stakeholder input. FERC plans to further effort by hosting a technical conference and launching a formal rulemaking process.

After FERC certifies NERC, NERC will begin to delegate authority to regional entities. All delegation agreements will be approved by FERC.

Senator Thomas’s quote:

“These weekly oversight hearings are very important as we seek to implement the Energy Policy we enacted last year. The reliability of our electric grid is a very important part of our overall energy policy. While I am pleased with the progress being made by FERC, several issues remain, such as accounting for regional differences on the grid. We also need to build more transmission lines. The Energy Policy Act gave us the right tools to get our needed infrastructure in place. It is reassuring to see the FERC working with the private and public sectors to ensure that this is done quickly and effectively.”

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