I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2854 
To amend the Federal Power Act to require the Electric Reliability Organiza-
tion 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Utility Resilience and 
Reliability Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROPOSED RELIABILITY STANDARD. 
Section 215(d) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 
824o(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph: 
‘‘(7) RESILIENCE OF BULK-POWER SYSTEM.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this paragraph, the Electric 
Reliability Organization shall file with the Commis-
sion a proposed reliability standard that addresses 
the resilience of the bulk-power system. 
‘‘(B) REGIONAL DIFFERENCES.—The proposed 
reliability standard filed under subsection (A) shall 
take into account regional differences. 
‘‘(C) RESILIENCE
DEFINED.—In this para-
graph, the term ‘resilience’ means the ability to— 
‘‘(i) prepare for and adapt to changing 
conditions; and 
‘‘(ii) withstand and rapidly recover from 
disruptions, including disruptions caused by ex-
treme weather conditions.’’. 
SEC. 3. ELECTRIC GRID RESILIENCE EDUCATION PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of this section, the Secretary of Energy 
shall establish a program to provide information and rec-
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ommendations to States and electric utilities on how to 
improve the resilience of electric grids. 
(b) ELECTRIC UTILITY DEFINED.—The term ‘‘elec-
tric utility’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
3 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 
SEC. 4. REPORT ON PLANNED ELECTRIC POWER OUTAGES 
DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS. 
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this section, the Secretary of Energy shall submit to 
Congress a report, and publish such report on the website 
of the Department of Energy, that provides recommenda-
tions on how to minimize the need for, effects of, and du-
ration of planned electric power outages that are due to 
extreme weather conditions, including such conditions 
under which the National Weather Service issues a red 
flag warning. 
Æ 
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