Extreme Weather
About this risk area
Extreme weather can make it more difficult to operate key instruments and system components. Some issues may alter the available resources and strategy of the Bulk Electric System operators. Additionally, when equipment vulnerable to freezing temperatures is exposed to adverse weather conditions, this may result in mechanical failure. Because most generating power plants remain non-enclosed and exposed directly to weather conditions, Generator Owners and Operators must take additional precautions and measures to ensure continued operation even during the rarest extreme weather events.
Extreme weather is addressed through new North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Reliability Standards EOP-011 and EOP-12. Along with the standards, ReliabilityFirst participated with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and NERC on cold-weather inquiries following extreme weather events, resulting in new recommendations and technical guidelines, plus two 2023 NERC Alerts, including an advisory to industry plus essential reliability actions.
ReliabilityFirst offers our voluntary Cold Weather Winterization program where our experts will go on-site, visit your generating plant, and provide a custom report detailing best practices observed and recommendations for enhanced performance. We have been visiting dozens of sites since 2014 and our analysis has shown higher generation reliability (as per NERC Generator Availability Data System or GADS data) for the sites we have visited versus the total population of generator plants in the RF Footprint.
Explore additional extreme weather resources below.
