
[Federal Register: November 18, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 222)]
[Notices]               
[Page 70752-70753]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18no10-95]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

 [Docket No. AD11-1-000]

 
Reliability Monitoring, Enforcement and Compliance Issues; 
Announcement of Panelists for Technical Conference

November 10, 2010.
    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) issued a 
notice on October 1, 2010 that it will hold a Commissioner-led 
Technical Conference on November 18, 2010 in the above-referenced 
proceeding to explore issues associated with reliability monitoring, 
enforcement and compliance. The Commission announced the conference in 
its September 16, 2010 order that accepted the North American Electric 
Reliability Corporation's initial assessment in Docket No. RR09-7-000 
of its performance as the nation's Electric Reliability Organization 
(ERO), and performance by the Regional Entities, under their delegation 
agreements with the ERO.\1\
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    \1\ North American Electric Reliability Corporation; Reliability 
Standards Development and NERC and Regional Entity Enforcement, 132 
FERC ] 61,217 at P 12 (2010).
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    This Technical Conference will be held in the Commission Meeting 
Room (2C) at Commission Headquarters, 888 First Street, NE., 
Washington, DC 20426, from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. EST. On November 2, 
2010, the Commission issued a notice with the agenda for the 
conference. The Commission is now announcing the panelists for the 
conference.
    The conference will be transcribed and Webcast. Transcripts of the 
conference will be immediately available for a fee from Ace-Federal 
Reporters, Inc. (202-347-3700 or 1-800-336-6646). A free webcast of the 
conference is also available through http://www.ferc.gov. Anyone with 
Internet access who desires to listen to this event can do so by 
navigating to http://www.ferc.gov's Calendar of Events and locating 
this event in the Calendar. The event will contain a link to its 
webcast. The Capitol Connection provides technical support for the 
webcasts and offers the option of listening to the meeting via phone-
bridge for a fee. If you have any questions, visit http://
www.CapitolConnection.org or call 703-993-3100.
    All those that are interested are invited and there is no 
registration list or registration fee to attend this technical 
conference.
    For further information, contact Gregory Campbell by e-mail at 
gregory.campbell@ferc.gov or by phone at 202-502-6465 (after November 
11, 2010).

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.

Attachment: Panelists and Agenda for the Technical Conference

November 18, 2010

PANELISTS and AGENDA FOR THE TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

I. Opening Statements (1-1:15 pm)
II. Panel 1: Reliability Standards Compliance and its Monitoring by 
Regional Entities and NERC (1:15-2:45)

Panelists:

Thomas Galloway, Senior Vice President and Chief Reliability Officer, 
NERC
Daniel Skaar, President, Midwest Reliability Organization
Steven Goodwill, General Counsel, Western Electricity Coordinating 
Council
Douglas Curry, General Counsel, Lincoln Electric System
Chris Hajovsky, Director, Regulatory Affairs and NERC Reliability 
Standards, RRI Energy, Inc.

Topics

 Status of compliance: what are the current trends in possible 
violations and levels of compliance, including the numbers of audits, 
possible violations, self-reports and penalties
Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) and non-CIP Violations
``Documentation'' Violations and ``Performance'' Violations
 Are Regional Entities and NERC conducting compliance audits 
and other compliance processes consistently across the country? How 
does NERC test for consistency?

[[Page 70753]]

Are there inconsistencies in audit processes and audit results? If so, 
what kinds and why? What are current specific examples?
How do NERC and the Regional Entities set priorities of what to audit, 
and are they doing a good job setting priorities?
Do audits focus too much on documentation? Would alternative auditing 
methods also demonstrate compliance and improve reliability?
Possible improvements or solutions
 Event Analysis and Compliance
Focus on the potential tension between event analysis/lessons learned 
and NERC/RE compliance and enforcement activities
 How can the Commission, NERC and the Regional Entities help 
create a culture of compliance?
III. Break (2:45-3:00)
IV. Panel 2: Violation Processing and Penalties (3:00-4:30)

Panelists:

Gerry W. Cauley, President and Chief Executive Officer, NERC
Stacy Dochoda, General Manager, SPP Regional Entity
Al Fohrer, Chief Executive Officer, Southern California Edison Company
David Mohre, Executive Director, Energy and Power Division, National 
Rural Electric Cooperative Association
John DiStasio, Chief Executive Officer, Sacramento Municipal Utility 
District
Stephen T. Naumann, Vice President for Wholesale Market Development, 
Exelon Corporation

Topics

 Streamlining processes to reduce compliance violation backlogs 
and minimize future backlogs
Regional Entity and NERC levels of review
Appropriate Notice of Penalty records
Development of ``traffic tickets,'' ``parking tickets'' and ``warning 
tickets''
 How effective are the NERC Sanction Guidelines, and are they 
applied consistently? What changes may be warranted to improve 
effectiveness and/or consistency of the Sanction Guidelines?
 Do current enforcement and compliance processes provide 
proactive approaches and improve reliability by reducing future 
reliability standard violations and system disturbances?
What metrics are currently utilized for compliance-based reliability 
improvement?
What do these metrics show?
How can the Commission, NERC and the Regional Entities promote 
transparency of results and dissemination of lessons learned?
V. Questions from the Audience (4:30-4:50)
VI. Closing Statement
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2010-29068 Filed 11-17-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P

