Energy Act Includes Provisions Championed by IEEE-USA

by Barton Reppert

Landmark energy legislation signed into law last month includes a key provision that IEEE-USA had championed, to create an Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) empowered to establish and enforce mandatory reliability standards for the North American electric power grid. This step is intended to help prevent a recurrence of the massive cascading blackout that hit the northeastern United States and parts of the Midwest and Canada in August 2003, affecting approximately 50 million people.

Signed into law by President George W. Bush on 8 August, another major Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6) provision directs the Department of Energy to adopt IEEE Interconnection Standard 1547 as the national technical standard for interconnecting distributed energy sources to the electric power grid.

“We commend Congress for recognizing the importance of creating the ERO,” said Fernando L. Alvarado, chair of IEEE-USA's Energy Policy Committee. “Adoption of IEEE 1547 and the creation of the ERO will help ensure the reliability, security and diversity of the electric power grid, which is essential to our nation’s economic health and national security.”

Alvarado, emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, added that for the IEEE, congressional adoption of the two provisions was “very important, in the sense that we are having an effect on policy. When we present our positions in a well-reasoned manner, Congress is willing to incorporate language or approximations to language that we have given them. Those provisions are reached by the consensus of many knowledgeable engineers… So I think this is a very good step. It shows that the IEEE is involved, and it’s good for the IEEE.”

The big blackout of 2003 began in the afternoon of 14 August with the failure of an overheated electrical transmission line just outside Cleveland, Ohio, putting enormous strain on other lines in Ohio. This strain led to a cascading spread of power system overloads and outages in neighboring states and parts of Canada, and rapidly developed into the greatest power failure in North American history. Lights flickered out, air conditioners died, subway trains halted, and tens of millions of people were left sweating in the dark for up to two days.

In remarks to reporters on 15 August 2003, President Bush commented about the blackout: “I view it as a wake-up call. You know, I’ve been concerned that our infrastructure — the delivery system is old and antiquated. And I think this is an indication of the fact that we need to modernize the electricity grid.”

Bush was considerably more upbeat two years later, when he signed the Energy Policy Act during a ceremony on 8 August at Sandia National Laboratory, in Albuquerque, N.M.

According to a White House transcript, the president said, in part, that “the energy bill will help ensure that consumers receive electricity over dependable modern infrastructure. The bill removes outdated obstacles to investment in electricity transmission lines in generating facilities. It also corrects the provision that made electric reliability standards optional instead of mandatory. Most of you probably consider it mandatory that the lights come on when you flip a switch. (Laughter.) Now the utility companies will have to consider it mandatory, as well. (Laughter.)”

The Energy Policy Act empowers the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create an Electric Reliability Organization which will collect dues from bulk power system owners and operators and have the authority to fine those not in compliance. IEEE-USA has been pressing for the establishment of such an entity since November 2002, when its Board of Directors released an official position statement on the subject.

The position statement asserted that “the reliability of the nation’s electric power infrastructure has deteriorated. IEEE-USA views this deterioration of the reliability of electric power with alarm.”

Among “points of concern” cited in the position statement was that “when the majority of the entities in electric power were locally franchised, and not competing with each other, a voluntary process for assuring reliability was sufficient and successful for many years. However, with competition, many voluntary cooperative processes break down. There is also serious concern that the greatly increased complexity of coordinating among multiple entity owners will significantly increase the time needed to restore service after a major outage.”

Further, IEEE-USA's position statement said that “to restore reliability to its proper place center-stage in electricity generation, legislation is needed to transform the North American Electric Reliability Council from a purely voluntary organization to one guided by the force of law.”

The other key provision embodied by the new energy legislation directs official adoption by the Department of Energy of IEEE Standard 1547 for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems, approved by the IEEE Standards Board in June 2003. This standard addresses performance, operation, testing and safety of the interconnection of products and services, such as hardware and software for distributed power control and communication.

For more than two decades, the IEEE has addressed and recommended introducing distributed energy resources, through its local and national technical meetings, and through its membership expert panel discussions.

In November 2001, IEEE-USA's Board of Directors approved a position statement saying “there is a pressing need for a comprehensive technical standard for connecting (interconnecting) distributed energy resources to existing electric power systems. The details of the technical requirements are critical to the economics of distributed energy resources, and to the safe and reliable operation of the power systems to which they are connected.”

Standard 1547 was drafted under the leadership of Richard DeBlasio, chair of IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 21 on Fuel Cells, Photovoltaics, Dispersed Generation and Energy Storage, and chair of the IEEE P-1547 Working Group. DeBlasio said he is “ecstatic” over Congress adopting Standard 1547 in the Energy Policy Act. “I’ve been doing standards since 1965, and this is one of the first standards, actually, that’s been adopted and mentioned” in federal legislation, he said.

DeBlasio, technology manager of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Distributed Energy Program, in Golden, Colo., said that his working group for developing Standard 1547 drew upon contributions by about 400 IEEE members. “The whole idea of IEEE 1547 was to provide a national standard for interconnection of distributed generators to the grid,” he said, noting that previously more than 3,000 utilities had their own interconnection specifications. “It was a major breakthrough, because up until 2000 or 2001, it was extremely difficult to even negotiate an interconnection.”

DeBlasio said that following Congress' action, each of the nation’s 50 state public utility commissions should also take a serious look at adopting the same standard.

The first comprehensive energy legislation in 13 years, the Energy Policy Act also includes provisions dealing with electricity market reform, energy efficiency, nuclear energy and alternative fuels.

A major focus of the bill is to expand investment in and construction of new nuclear power plants. To achieve these goals, the legislation extends through 2025 the Price-Anderson Act, which caps the industry’s liability for catastrophic accidents. H.R. 6 also increases security for new and existing nuclear plants. In addition, it directs DOE to conduct a study on the cost, schedule, environmental impact and security threat associated with a permanent disposal facility for nuclear waste.

Barton Reppert is a freelance science and technology writer specializing in S&T policy coverage. He previously worked for 18 years as a reporter and editor with The Associated Press in Washington, New York and Moscow. He can be contacted at barton.reppert@verizon.net.