Home › Inactive Standard › FAC-001-2 – Facility Interconnection Requirements

FAC-001-2 – Facility Interconnection Requirements

Purpose

To avoid adverse impacts on the reliability of the Bulk Electric System, Transmission Owners and applicable Generator Owners must document and make Facility interconnection requirements available so that entities seeking to interconnect will have the necessary information.

Applicability

4.1. Functional Entities:

4.1.1. Transmission Owner

4.1.2. Applicable Generator Owner

4.1.2.1 Generator Owner with a fully executed Agreement to conduct a study on the reliability impact of interconnecting a third party Facility to the Generator Owner’s existing Facility that is used to interconnect to the Transmission system.

5. Effective Date: The standard shall become effective on the first day of the first calendar quarter that is one year after the date that this standard is approved by an applicable governmental authority or as otherwise provided for in a jurisdiction where approval by an applicable governmental authority is required for a standard to go into effect. Where approval by an applicable governmental authority is not required, the standard shall become effective on the first day of the first calendar quarter that is one year after the date this standard is adopted by the NERC Board of Trustees or as otherwise provided for in that jurisdiction.

Requirements and Measures

R1. Each Transmission Owner shall document Facility interconnection requirements, update them as needed, and make them available upon request. Each Transmission Owner’s Facility interconnection requirements shall address interconnection requirements for: [Violation Risk Factor: Lower] [Time Horizon: Long-term Planning]

1.1. generation Facilities;

1.2. transmission Facilities; and

1.3. end-user Facilities.

M1. Each Transmission Owner shall have evidence (such as dated, documented Facility interconnection requirements) that it met all requirements in Requirement R1.

R2. Each applicable Generator Owner shall document Facility interconnection requirements and make them available upon request within 45 calendar days of full execution of an Agreement to conduct a study on the reliability impact of interconnecting a third party Facility to the Generator Owner’s existing Facility that is used to interconnect to the Transmission system. [Violation Risk Factor: Lower] [Time Horizon: Long-term Planning]

M2. Each applicable Generator Owner shall have evidence (such as dated, documented Facility interconnection requirements) that it met all requirements in Requirement R2.

R3. Each Transmission Owner shall address the following items in its Facility interconnection requirements: [Violation Risk Factor: Lower] [Time Horizon: LongTerm Planning]

3.1. Procedures for coordinated studies of new or materially modified existing interconnections and their impacts on affected system(s).

3.2. Procedures for notifying those responsible for the reliability of affected system(s) of new or materially modified existing interconnections.

M3. Each Transmission Owner shall have evidence (such as dated, documented Facility interconnection requirements addressing the procedures) that it met all requirements in Requirement R3. R4. Each applicable Generator Owner shall address the following items in its Facility interconnection requirements: [Violation Risk Factor: Lower] [Time Horizon: LongTerm Planning]

4.1. Procedures for coordinated studies of new interconnections and their impacts on affected system(s).

4.2. Procedures for notifying those responsible for the reliability of affected system(s) of new interconnections.

M4. Each applicable Generator Owner shall have evidence (such as dated, documented Facility interconnection requirements addressing the procedures) that it met all requirements in Requirement R4.

Compliance

1. Compliance Monitoring Process

1.1 Compliance Enforcement Authority

As defined in the NERC Rules of Procedure, “Compliance Enforcement Authority” (CEA) means NERC or the Regional Entity in their respective roles of monitoring and enforcing compliance with the NERC Reliability Standards.

1.2. Evidence Retention

The following evidence retention periods identify the period of time an entity is required to retain specific evidence to demonstrate compliance. For instances where the evidence retention period specified below is shorter than the time since the last audit, the CEA may ask an entity to provide other evidence to show that it was compliant for the full time period since the last audit.

The Transmission Owner and applicable Generator Owner shall keep data or evidence to show compliance as identified below unless directed by its CEA to retain specific evidence for a longer period of time as part of an investigation:

The responsible entities shall retain documentation as evidence for three years.

If a responsible entity is found non-compliant, it shall keep information related to the non-compliance until mitigation is complete and approved or for the time specified above, whichever is longer.

The CEA shall keep the last audit records and all requested and submitted subsequent audit records.

1.3 Compliance Monitoring and Assessment Processes

  •  Compliance Audit
  •  Self-Certification
  •  Spot Checking
  • Compliance Violation Investigations
  • Self-Reporting
  • Complaints

1.4. Additional Compliance Information

None

Guidelines and Technical Basis

Entities should have documentation to support the technical rationale for determining whether an existing interconnection was “materially modified.” Recognizing that what constitutes a “material modification” will vary from entity to entity, the intent is for this determination to be based on engineering judgment.

Requirement R3:

Originally the Parts of R3, with the exception of the first two bullets, which were added by the Project 2010-02 drafting team, this list has been moved to the Guidelines and Technical Basis section to provide entities with the flexibility to determine the Facility interconnection requirements that are technically appropriate for their respective Facilities. Including them as Parts of R3 was deemed too prescriptive, as frequently some items in the list do not apply to all applicable entities – and some applicable entities will have requirements that are not included in this list.

Each Transmission Owner and applicable Generator Owner should consider the following items in the development of Facility interconnection requirements:

  • Procedures for requesting a new Facility interconnection or material modification to an existing interconnection
  • Data required to properly study the interconnection
  • Voltage level and MW and MVAR capacity or demand at the point of interconnection
  • Breaker duty and surge protection
  • System protection and coordination
  • Metering and telecommunications
  • Grounding and safety issues
  • Insulation and insulation coordination
  • Voltage, Reactive Power (including specifications for minimum static and dynamic reactive power requirements), and power factor control
  • Power quality impacts
  • Equipment ratings
  • Synchronizing of Facilities
  • Maintenance coordination
  • Operational issues (abnormal frequency and voltages)
  • Inspection requirements for new or materially modified existing interconnections
  • Communications and procedures during normal and emergency operating conditions

 

Related Terms:

Top