I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2854 

To amend the Federal Power Act to require the Electric Reliability Organization to propose a reliability standard that addresses the resilience of 

the bulk-power system, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 26, 2021 

Mr. THOMPSON of California (for himself, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. 

GARAMENDI, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. LAMALFA, Ms. MATSUI, 

and Mr. PANETTA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Power Act to require the Electric 

Reliability Organization to propose a reliability standard 

that addresses the resilience of the bulk-power system, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Utility Resilience and 

5 Reliability Act’’. 


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•HR 2854 IH

1 SEC. 2. PROPOSED RELIABILITY STANDARD. 

2 Section 215(d) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 

3 824o(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following 

4 new paragraph: 

5 ‘‘(7) RESILIENCE OF BULK-POWER SYSTEM.— 

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

7 the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Electric 

8 Reliability Organization shall file with the Commis9 sion a proposed reliability standard that addresses 

10 the resilience of the bulk-power system. 

11 ‘‘(B) REGIONAL DIFFERENCES.—The proposed 

12 reliability standard filed under subsection (A) shall 

13 take into account regional differences. 

14 ‘‘(C) RESILIENCE DEFINED.—In this para15 graph, the term ‘resilience’ means the ability to— 

16 ‘‘(i) prepare for and adapt to changing 

17 conditions; and 

18 ‘‘(ii) withstand and rapidly recover from 

19 disruptions, including disruptions caused by ex20 treme weather conditions.’’. 

21 SEC. 3. ELECTRIC GRID RESILIENCE EDUCATION PRO22 GRAM. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

24 date of enactment of this section, the Secretary of Energy 

25 shall establish a program to provide information and recVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:54 Jun 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2854.IH H2854

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•HR 2854 IH

1 ommendations to States and electric utilities on how to 

2 improve the resilience of electric grids. 

3 (b) ELECTRIC UTILITY DEFINED.—The term ‘‘elec4 tric utility’’ has the meaning given such term in section 

5 3 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 

6 SEC. 4. REPORT ON PLANNED ELECTRIC POWER OUTAGES 

7 DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS. 

8 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

9 of this section, the Secretary of Energy shall submit to 

10 Congress a report, and publish such report on the website 

11 of the Department of Energy, that provides recommenda12 tions on how to minimize the need for, effects of, and du13 ration of planned electric power outages that are due to 

14 extreme weather conditions, including such conditions 

15 under which the National Weather Service issues a red 

16 flag warning. 

Æ 


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