NERC releases 2018 State of Reliability report
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its State of Reliability 2018 report last week, which analyzes historical risks to the power system with a view toward solving future problems.
NERC, which identifies and quantifies current and emerging reliability issues, said changes to the reliability ecosystem had required it to implement a risk-based approach toward threats to the North American grid. These changes are driven by a shift in the resource mix – that is, the retirement of gas, coal and nuclear plants in concert with the introduction of renewable energy resources, along with the advent of new technology.
“NERC’s annual State of Reliability report is an analysis of the past performance of the grid that informs regulators, policymakers and executives at a high level while providing granular technical details for those interested in the underlying data and detailed analytics,” James Merlo, vice president and director of Reliability Risk Management at NERC, said. “The grid has several areas that continue to show year-over-year improvement, and we continue to see the sustainment of high performance across all of the key reliability indicators.”
The report highlights how the power system was able to maintain reliable operations during two Category 5 hurricanes — Harvey and Irma. As dependence on the electric infrastructure increases, resilience becomes a critical element of bulk power system reliability.
