On May 18, 2023, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) submitted a plan describing how it will identify and register owners and operators of inverter-based resources (IBR) that are connected to the Bulk-Power System but are not currently required to register with NERC. In this filing, which was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NERC proposed a three-phased approach to identifying and registering certain IBRs within a period of 36 months.

In the next 2-3 years, existing and future IBRs with nameplate capacity greater than 20MVA interconnecting to the Bulk-Power System at voltages above and below 100 kV, and which are currently unregistered with NERC, will be required to register as GO-IBR. NERC clarified the GO-IBR term includes both the owner and operator of IBRs meeting the criteria. 

NERC has not released the list of requirements that will be applicable to GO-IBR yet, but we can anticipate a subset of higher risk Standards will be applicable to GO-IBRs. We expect the list of applicable Standards will include certain CIP, FAC, MOD, and PRC Standards, at a minimum. 

If you or your asset management team has any questions, or are unsure if your projects will be required to register, please contact us at bdgroup@gridsme.com or 916.800.4545. There are still a lot of questions surrounding this development, but we’re keeping a close eye on this and are here to help navigate another industry change. 

To view the FERC order for Docket No. RD22-4-001, click here.