NERC says state of reliability in electric industry is strong
In its 2019 State of Reliability report, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) says reliability remains high, but it encourages continued vigilance in the face of cyber and physical security threats and challenges.
The report found that extreme weather events continue to be the leading source of outages, but those numbers are declining. Weather was responsible for the two category 3 bulk power system events in 2018, the report finds.
Also, response times continue to improve. The report did say, however, that in there is reliability risk in Texas in 2019 due to the projected capacity deficit. But better than expected performance from the generation fleet helped meet 2018 summer peak demand. Also, while there were no major cyber or physical security incidents last year, there are many evolving threats that require monitoring and vigilance.
“By nearly every measure we use to evaluate reliability, it is clear that the state of North America’s bulk power system remains highly reliable,” John Moura, director of Reliability Assessment at NERC, said. “While year-over-year performance of the bulk power system shows positive trends, a strong reliability posture is needed to manage the emerging challenges as a result of the changing resource mix.”
The report concludes that the electricity industry is undergoing significant change, which presents both new challenges and opportunities for the reliability and security of the bulk power system.
