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IEEE-USA Commends Congress for Adopting
Reliability, Security Standards for U.S.
Electric Power Supply
WASHINGTON (8 August 2005)
— IEEE-USA-supported recommendations to ensure a
reliable, adequate and secure supply of
electricity are contained in the Energy Policy
Act (H.R. 6) of 2005 that Congress passed late
last month.
The legislation empowers the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create an
Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) to
establish and enforce mandatory reliability
standards of the North American electric system,
including elements in Canada and Mexico. The ERO
will collect dues from
bulk power system owners and operators and have
the authority to fine those not in compliance.
The energy bill, which the President is expected
to sign Monday, also directs the Department of
Energy to adopt IEEE Standard 1547 as the
national technical standard for interconnecting
distributed energy resources to the electric
power grid. The “Standard for Interconnecting
Distributed Resources with Electric Power
Systems,” approved by the IEEE Standards Board
in June 2003, addresses performance, operation,
testing and safety of the interconnection of
products and services, such as hardware and
software for distributed power control and
communication.
“We commend Congress for recognizing the
importance of creating the ERO,” IEEE-USA Energy
Policy Committee Chair Fernando Alvarado said.
“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.”
IEEE-USA has been working on the establishment
of an ERO since Nov. 2002, when it released a
reliability position (www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/reliability.html).
The organization proposed the interconnection
standard a year earlier (www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/interconnection.html).
The ERO is designed to help prevent a repeat of
the Aug. 2003 cascading blackout that affected
50 million people in the northeastern United
States and parts of the Midwest and Canada. IEEE
1547 will facilitate the development of
distributed energy generation technologies such
as fuel cells, photovoltaics and wind turbines.
The standard’s criteria and resources also
address product quality, interoperability,
design, engineering, installation and
certification.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE.
It was created in 1973 to advance the public
good and promote the careers and public policy
interests of the more than 220,000 technology
professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE.
The IEEE is the world's largest technical
professional society. For more information, go
to
www.ieeeusa.org.
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, DC 20036-5104
Phone: 202-785-0017, Fax: 202-785-0835
Last Update:
15 May 2007
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter,
p.mccarter@ieee.org
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