2020 State of Reliability an Assessment of 2019 Bulk Power System Performance

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2020 State of Reliability an Assessment of 2019 Bulk Power System Performance 2020 State of Reliability An Assessment of 2019 Bulk Power System Performance July 2020 Table of Contents Preface ........................................................................................................................................................................... iv About This Report ........................................................................................................................................................... v Development Process .................................................................................................................................................. v Primary Data Sources .................................................................................................................................................. v Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic .................................................................................................................................. v Reading this Report .................................................................................................................................................... vi Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... viii Key Findings ................................................................................................................................................................ ix Recommendations....................................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: The North American BPS—By the Numbers ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Event Analysis Review ................................................................................................................................... 3 Bulk Power System Awareness, Inputs, and Products ................................................................................................ 3 NERC Alerts .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 2019 Event Analysis Summary..................................................................................................................................... 4 Event Trends ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Review of Major Events (Category 3, 4, and 5) ........................................................................................................... 8 2019 Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 3: Reliability Indicators .................................................................................................................................... 10 Reliability Indicators and Trends ............................................................................................................................... 10 Resource Adequacy ................................................................................................................................................... 12 Transmission Performance and Unavailability .......................................................................................................... 17 Generation Performance and Availability ................................................................................................................. 27 System Protection and Disturbance Performance .................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 4: Severity Risk Index ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Severity Risk Index and Trends .................................................................................................................................. 39 Chapter 5: Trends in Priority Reliability Issues .............................................................................................................. 44 Emerging Risk Areas .................................................................................................................................................. 44 BPS Planning and Adapting to the Changing Resource Mix ...................................................................................... 45 Impacts of Inverter-Based and Distributed Energy Resources on the BPS ............................................................... 48 Increasing Complexity in Protection and Control Systems ....................................................................................... 52 Loss of Situation Awareness ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Bulk Electric System Impact of Extreme Event Days ................................................................................................. 64 Expanded Eastern Interconnection: Transmission Impacts during Extreme Days .................................................... 67 NERC | State of Reliability | 2020 ii Table of Contents Expanded Eastern Interconnection: Generation Impacts during Extreme Days ....................................................... 68 ERCOT Interconnection: Transmission Impacts during Extreme Days ...................................................................... 69 ERCOT Interconnection: Generation Impacts during Extreme Days ......................................................................... 70 Western Interconnection: Transmission Impacts during Extreme Days ................................................................... 71 Western Interconnection: Generation Impacts during Extreme Days ...................................................................... 72 Cyber and Physical Security ....................................................................................................................................... 74 Critical Infrastructure Interdependencies: Electric-Gas Working Group .................................................................. 81 Appendix A: Compilation of Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 82 Appendix B: Contributions ............................................................................................................................................ 85 NERC | State of Reliability | 2020 iii Preface Electricity is a key component of the fabric of modern society and the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) Enterprise serves to strengthen that fabric. The vision for the ERO Enterprise, which is comprised of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the six Regional Entities (REs), is a highly reliable and secure North American bulk power system (BPS). Our mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid. Reliability | Resilience | Security Because nearly 400 million citizens in North America are counting on us The North American BPS is divided into six RE boundaries as shown in the map and corresponding table below. The multicolored area denotes overlap as some load-serving entities participate in one RE while associated Transmission Owners (TOs)/Transmission Operators (TOPs) participate in another. MRO Midwest Reliability Organization NPCC Northeast Power Coordinating Council RF ReliabilityFirst SERC SERC Reliability Corporation Texas RE Texas Reliability Entity WECC WECC NERC | State of Reliability | 2020 iv About This Report The purpose of this annual report is to provide objective and concise information to policymakers, industry leaders, and the NERC Board of Trustees (Board) on issues affecting the reliability and resilience of the North American BPS. Specifically, the report does the following: Identifies system performance trends and emerging reliability risks Reports on the relative health of the interconnected system Measures the success of mitigation activities deployed NERC, as the ERO of North America, assures the effective and efficient reduction of risks to reliability and security for the North American BPS. Annual and seasonal risk assessments that look to the future and special reports on emergent risks serve to identify and mitigate potential risks. Additionally, analyses of past BPS performance serve to document BPS adequacy and to identify positive or negative performance trends. The annual State of Reliability report is one such analysis of past performance that informs regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders while providing strong technical support for those interested in the underlying data and detailed analytics. Development Process The ERO staff developed this independent assessment with support from the Performance Analysis Subcommittee. The 2020 State of Reliability report focuses on BPS performance during the prior complete year as measured by a predetermined set of reliability indicators and more detailed analysis performed by ERO staff and technical committee participants. This report has been endorsed by the Reliability and Security
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