North American Electric Reliability Corporation holds first meeting with new CEO

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Board of Trustees recently held its quarterly meeting in Arlington, Virginia, the first meeting Jim Robb attended as NERC CEO.

Robb assumed the role of NERC’s new president and CEO on April 9.

“The Board is pleased to welcome Jim to his first meeting as CEO,” Board Chair Roy Thilly said in opening the meeting. “We have high confidence in his qualifications to lead this organization as we face exciting opportunities, as well as new challenges, to the reliability of the North American grid.”

Robb described to the approximately 200 stakeholders in attendance his intended areas of focus during his time as president and CEO. Robb said he plans to focus on leading NERC in working with industry while retaining independence, serving as a credible and objective resource for reliability, building relationships with stakeholders and policymakers and increasing alignment and efficiency across the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) model.

The Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) Enterprise is comprised of NERC and the eight Regional Entities (REs).

He also noted that this summer marks the 50th anniversary of NERC’s creation.

“In those 50 years, we have grown a lot,” Robb said. “We are the independent voice for reliability and everything we do is about improving reliability and security. We have a bright future with more to do and I’m excited about the opportunity to have a real impact on the industry that I’ve worked in for 30 years.”

Also at the meeting, the Board heard from representatives of Dominion Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Canada’s Energy and Utility Regulators (CAMPUT) and received an update on ERO Enterprise supply chain activities.

The Board also took action on two reliability standards. It approved Operating Personnel Credentials (PER-003-2), which provides clarity on the connection between the standard and the System Operator Certification Program Manual, and retired Reliability Coordination-Staff (PER-004-2), which the Board found duplicated requirements existing in other standards.