In Order 672, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stated the following:
The Commission agrees with commenters that, to fulfill its obligations under this Final Rule, the ERO or a Regional Entity will need access to certain data from users, owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System. Further, the Commission will need access to such information as is necessary to fulfill its oversight and enforcement roles under the statute. . . . We also agree . . . that the ERO and each Regional Entity must adopt confidentiality Rules to prevent the unintended disclosure of such information.
Order No. 672, 114 FERC ¶ 61,104, PP 114-15 (Feb. 3, 2006).
With that, FERC initiated the development of measures to protect confidential information held by the North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the regional reliability entities. Those measures have been codified as Section 1500 of NERC’s Rules of Procedure (ROP).
The Electric Reliability Law Team of Balch & Bingham LLP has created, for distribution as a service to the electric reliability community, a manual that tracks the creation and further development of ROP Section 1500, beginning with Order No. 672 and continuing to the present. The heart of the document is a series of passages from key filings and FERC orders. Each source document is excerpted to focus on statements directly addressing confidentiality issues and the text of relevant rules. To request a free copy of this document, please send us an email by clicking
.