Review of 2008 Ten-Year Site Plans - Public Service Commission

6. TRANSMISSION PLANS
As generation capacities increase, the transmission system must grow accordingly to maintain
the capability of delivering the energy to the end user. The Commission has been given broad
authority under certain sections of Chapter 366, F.S., known as the Grid Bill, to require reliability
within Florida’s coordinated electric grid and to ensure the planning, development, and maintenance
of adequate generation, transmission, and distribution facilities within the state.
Reliability Standards
Nationwide, electric utilities plan their bulk power systems (100 kV and above) to comply
with the NERC and regional reliability standards. The NERC's mission is to ensure that the bulk
electric system in North America is reliable, adequate, and secure. Since its formation in 1968, the
NERC operated successfully as a self-regulatory organization, and the electric industry voluntarily
complied with the NERC’s reliability standards. Changes in the electric industry, however, have
rendered the voluntary compliance system inadequate. In response to these industry changes,
Congress required the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop a new mandatory
system of reliability standards and compliance. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the
creation of an electric reliability organization (ERO) with the statutory authority to enforce
compliance with reliability standards among all market participants. The NERC received certification
as the ERO from the FERC in July 2006.
NERC works with all stakeholder segments of the electric industry, including electricity users,
to develop standards for the reliable planning and operation of the bulk power systems.
Fundamentally, a power system should always operate in such a way that no credible contingency
could trigger cascading outages or another form of instability. Reliability standards are generally
applied as follows:
• Under a single-contingency criterion, a utility’s transmission system experiences no
equipment overloads, voltage violations, or instability following a contingency outage of the
single most crucial element, whether that piece of equipment is a generator, a transmission
line, or a transformer. The single-contingency criterion is generally the minimum reliability
standard at which electric utilities plan their bulk power systems.
• Under a multiple-contingency criterion, a utility’s transmission system must withstand the
simultaneous failure of two or more elements with a controlled loss of load and no cascading
outages which affect neighboring utilities. The transmission system must subsequently be
able to adjust so that all elements operate within their emergency ratings for the duration of the
outage.
In response to congressional actions to require mandatory reliability standards, which were
supported by the Commission, the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council (FRCC) has implemented
a compliance program that will monitor and enforce compliance with the NERC and the FRCC
reliability standards. The program relies on self-assessment, periodic reporting, and on-site audits for
compliance. In administering the compliance program, the FRCC works closely with all owners,
operators, and users of the state’s bulk electric system. The Commission staff attends FRCC meetings
Review of 2008 Ten-Year Site Plans - 35 -