Work continues on Alaska ERO regulations

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska is continuing to pursue its work developing regulations to implement new statutes governing the operation of electricity reliability organizations in Alaska. The primary purpose is to enable the certification and regulation of an ERO for the Alaska Railbelt, to enable a more unified approach to the management and operation of the Railbelt electrical system. The relevant statutes were enacted by the Legislature last year in Senate Bill 123.

The commission has scheduled a technical conference, starting on Feb. 23 and possibly continuing for two or three days, to discuss potential regulations governing ERO tariff filings, penalties associated with failure to comply with reliability standards, conflict resolution for reliability standards, and ERO cost recovery.

The topics to be dealt with during the technical conference fall within the last of three dockets that the commission has established for the development of SB 123 regulations: The other two dockets deal with ERO certification and governance, and with RCA oversight of regional planning of the electrical system and RCA approval of major system upgrades.

The development of regulations for ERO certification and governance is proving particularly challenging and time consuming. At stake is the necessity to ensure that ERO governance fairly represents the interests of all stakeholders in the electrical system while, at the same time, maintaining an ERO’s legal rights in relation to its governance structure.

During a Feb. 10 RCA public meeting Commissioner Antony Scott emphasized that the commission will take into account public comments that have been submitted in relation to this issue.

SB 123 also requires the RCA to itself establish an ERO, in the unlikely event that a potential ERO does not apply for RCA certification. During the Feb. 10 public meeting, RCA Administrative Law Judge James Walker presented some initial ideas for regulations that would address this issue. The question of how to fund the considerable work that could be involved, should the RCA have to establish an ERO, seems a potentially difficult issue - the commission normally recovers its costs from the regulatory cost charges paid by regulated entities.

- ALAN BAILEY