AICPA SOC Service Organizations - Certrec

PacifiCorp Receives $4.4M Civil Penalty for Violation of Facility Ratings Standard Requirement (Inconsistent with Facility Rating Methodology)

Summary of NERC Penalties

REGION

WHEN?

ENTITY

COMPLIANCE AREA

VIOLATION

REASON

PENALTY AMOUNT

FERC

Quarter 1

12/30/2022

PacifiCorp

FAC-009-1 R1

Facilities Design, Connections, and Maintenance (FAC) Standard

Lack of establishment and facility ratings not consistent with its FRM

$4.4M

On December 30, 2022, the Commission approved a settlement agreement (Agreement) between FERC’s Office of Enforcement (Enforcement) and PacifiCorp resolving Enforcement’s investigation into PacifiCorp’s lack of compliance with the Reliability Standards that regulate transmission line clearances and the resulting Order to Show Cause proceeding. PacifiCorp stipulates to the facts in the Agreement and neither admits nor denies Enforcement’s determination that PacifiCorp violated Federal Power Act section 215(b)(1) and 18 C.F.R. § 39.2(b) (2022) between August 31, 2009 and August 2017, by failing to comply with FAC-009-1 R1, which requires a transmission owner, such as PacifiCorp, to establish and have facility ratings that are consistent with its Facilities Rating Methodology. FERC stipulated that the Civil Penalty of $4.4 million, of which (i) $1.9 million will be paid to the United States, and (ii) as an offset to the remaining $2.5 million in civil penalty, $2.5 million will be invested, subject to Enforcement’s approval, in reliability enhancement measures identified in the Agreement that go above and beyond what the Reliability Standards require, and (b) be subject to compliance monitoring.
 

FERC enforcement determined that PacifiCorp violated FPA section 215(b)(1) and 18 C.F.R. § 39.2(b) (2022) between August 31, 2009, and August 2017, by failing to comply with FAC-009-1 R1, which requires a transmission owner, such as PacifiCorp, to establish and have facility ratings that are consistent with its FRM. Enforcement found that PacifiCorp’s FRM required it to consider NESC clearance standards when rating its BES transmission lines. Enforcement also found that PacifiCorp knew that clearance conditions existed on a majority of its BES transmission lines. Enforcement concluded that such clearance conditions failed to conform with NESC standards, which Enforcement concluded was required by PacifiCorp’s FRM. Enforcement found that there were clearance violations on at least 215 BES transmission lines, or 58 percent of PacifiCorp’s total lines. Enforcement also determined that PacifiCorp did not complete the remediation of all of the clearance conditions required to make the facility ratings consistent with PacifiCorp’s FRM until August 2017.

About Certrec:
Certrec is a leading provider of regulatory compliance solutions for the energy industry with the mission of helping ensure a stable, reliable, bulk electric supply. Since 1988, Certrec’s SaaS applications and consulting expertise have helped hundreds of power-generating facilities manage their regulatory compliance and reduce their risks.

Certrec’s engineers and business teams bring a cumulative 1,500 years of working experience in regulatory areas of compliance, engineering, and operations, including nuclear, fossil, solar, wind facilities, and other Registered Entities generation and transmission.

Certrec has helped more than 120 generating facilities establish and maintain NERC Compliance Programs. We manage the entire NERC compliance program for 60+ registered entities in the US and Canada that trust us to decrease their regulatory and reputational risk. Certrec is ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified and has successfully completed annual SOC 2 Type 2 examinations.

For press and media inquiries, please contact marketing@certrec.com.

Share