FERC, NERC combine on outage inquiry

- Two investigations into the February outages in the southwestern United States will be rolled into one.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and Gerry Cauley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation NERC, announced that they are combining the efforts of their separate inquiries into the causes of the electric outages and natural gas delivery disruptions that occurred in the Southwest, during an unusual cold spell in early February of this year.

FERC and NERC have been sharing information but conducting separate inquiries into the matter. FERC and NERC staffs will issue a joint report on findings and recommendations and present them to the Commission and to the NERC Board of Trustees.

The Federal Power Act of 2005 gives FERC authority to oversee the reliability of the nationÂ’s bulk electric system. FERC has designated NERC as the organization that develops and enforces mandatory reliability standards.