Document ID: FERC-2016-0844-0001
Agency: ferc
Document Type: Notice
Title: Staff Review of Compliance Programs: North American Electric Reliability Corp.
Posted Date: 2016-06-21T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 119 (Tuesday, June 21, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40298-40299]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-14603]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RC11-6-004]

North American Electric Reliability Corporation; Notice of Staff 
Review of Compliance Programs

    Commission staff coordinated with the staff of the North American 
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to conduct the annual oversight 
of the Find, Fix, Track and Report (FFT) program, as outlined in the 
March 15, 2012 Order,\1\ and the Compliance Exception (CE) Program, as 
proposed by NERC's September 18, 2015 annual Compliance Filing.\2\ The 
Commission supported NERC's plan to coordinate with Commission staff to 
review the same sample of possible violations, thereby reducing the 
burden on the Regional Entities of providing evidence for two different 
samples. Commission staff reviewed a sample of 32 FFT possible 
violations out of 161 FFT possible violations posted by NERC between 
October 2014 and September 2015 and a sample of 100 CE instances of 
noncompliance out of 499 CE instances of noncompliance posted by NERC 
between May 2014 and October 2015.
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    \1\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., 138 FERC ] 
61,193, at P 73 (2012) (discussing Commission plans to survey a 
random sample of FFTs submitted each year to gather information on 
how the FFT program is working).
    \2\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., Docket No. RC11-
6-004, at 1 (Nov. 13, 2015) (delegated letter order) (stating 
``NERC's intention to combine the evaluation of Compliance 
Exceptions with the annual sampling of FFTs to further streamline 
oversight of the FFT and compliance exception programs'').
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    Commission staff believes that the FFT and CE programs are meeting 
expectations with limited exceptions. Sampling for the 2015 program 
year indicated that the Regional Entities appropriately included the 
sampled possible violations in the FFT and CE programs and that these 
132 possible violations have been adequately remediated. Commission 
staff's sample analysis indicated a small number of documentation 
concerns, particularly with regard to the quality of the information 
contained in the FFT and/or CE postings. For example, Commission staff 
found that several FFT or CE issues still lacked some of the 
information requested in NERC's Guidance for Self Reports document and 
necessary for the posted FFT or CE.\3\ This includes information such 
as start or end dates, factors affecting the risk prior to mitigation 
(such as potential and actual risk), and actual harm. Commission staff 
subsequently reviewed the supporting information for these FFTs or CEs, 
which provided a majority of the missing information. Commission staff 
ultimately agreed with the final risk determinations for all 132 
samples. Commission staff also noted a significant improvement in the 
clear identification of root cause, which was identified in all samples 
posted after the feedback calls from the previous year's survey. In 
addition, Commission staff noted that the FFTs and CEs sampled did not 
contain any material misrepresentations by the registered entities.
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    \3\ North American Electric Reliability Corp., 138 FERC ] 
61,193, at P 60 (2012).

[[Page 40299]]

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    Dated: June 15, 2016.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-14603 Filed 6-20-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6717-01-P