Monthly

Newsletter

November 2026

WECC News & Events

FERC Approves WECC 2027 Business Plan and Budget

On October 15, FERC accepted the 2027 Business Plans and Budgets for NERC, WECC, and the other five Regional Entities.

This order enables WECC to continue to meet its delegated responsibilities under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act and advance its mission to effectively and efficiently mitigate the risks to the reliability and security of the Western Interconnection’s bulk power system.

Read Docket RR26-3-000.

PRC-029: Enforcement Discretion vs. Hardware Limitations

The PRC-029 Enforcement Discretion submittal applies only to requirements 1–3.

WECC has received several ambiguous submissions, often because the OEM has not yet provided feedback on settings or physical constraints. The core distinction between the two compliance paths depends on the physical capability of the IBR:

• Enforcement Discretion (R1–R3): The IBR is physically capable of complying but missed the deadline due to external factors (e.g., supply chain issues or delayed OEM support).
• Hardware Limitation (R4): The IBR hardware is fundamentally incapable of complying (common in older units) and can never meet the standard.

Note that R4 may only apply to specific elements of R2 and R3. For example, if an IBR supports voltage ride-through (R2) but has a hardware limitation for frequency ride-through (R3), you must submit an R4 limitation for R3, and an enforcement discretion request for R2 if its deadline was missed due to external factors.

WSC Seeks Comments on 2026 WECC Reliability Standards Development Procedures Update

The WECC Standards Committee (WSC) is seeking comments from industry on the proposed update to the standards development procedures by December 2.

Instructions for submitting comments are available here.

Reliability & Security Workshop Recordings

A big thanks to everyone who made the recent Reliability & Security Workshop a success. In case you missed it, or would like to revisit the content, presentation recordings are available here.

Save the date: Next year's Reliability & Security Workshop will be October 26–27, 2027, in Salt Lake City, Utah!

Reliability in the West: Large Loads

At our most recent Reliability in the West, we discussed large loads from continent-wide and WECC perspectives.

JP Skeath, manager of engineering and security integration at NERC, gave an overview of the history of the current work on integrating large computational loads, including changes to registration and reliability standards under development. More information is available in the Large Loads Action Plan.

Mark Rogers, manager of registration and certification at WECC, discussed the registration criteria, the Multi-Region Registered Entity approach to registration of large loads, and data collection. He also noted the registration date could be April 1, 2027, pending FERC approval.

Recording

Slides

Note that there will not be Reliability in the West in December and January due to the holidays.

Technical Insights in the West: Understanding the Western Interconnection RLPC

November 18, 2:00–3:00 p.m. MST

How has grid frequency protection evolved since the retirement of the classic "2 Palo Verde" criteria? Find out at our upcoming virtual event, Technical Insights in the West: Engagement Series.

Since NERC Standard BAL-003-2 took effect in 2020, the Resource Loss Protection Criteria (RLPC) has served as the modern methodology for frequency response across the Western Interconnection. In this one-hour webinar, industry experts will break down the history of the RLPC, analyze its performance over the last few years, and discuss its future impact on planning and operations horizons.

Board of Directors and Associated Meetings

Tuesday, December 8–Wednesday, December 9

Hybrid — Salt Lake City, Utah

Join us for the open sessions of our upcoming Board of Directors and associated meetings.

Tuesday, December 8

• Finance and Audit Committee — 11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. MST
• Human Resources and Compensation Committee — 1:00–1:30 p.m. MST
• Governance Committee — 1:40–2:00 p.m. MST
• Technical Session on WECC's Enhanced Data Portal — 2:15–3:00 p.m. MST
• Member Advisory Committee — 3:45–4:45 p.m. MST

Wednesday, December 9

• WECC Standards Committee — 7:45–8:30 a.m. MST
• Board of Directors — 8:45–11:30 a.m. MST
• Member Advisory Committee Workshop — noon–3:00 p.m. MST

Proposed Data Request Posted for Comment

NERC has posted a proposed data request regarding computational load sites for a comment period concluding on Thursday, November 12. The proposed data request is intended to permit NERC and the Regional Entities to obtain contact, location, size, and status information for operational and planned computational load sites and expeditiously initiate the registration process for Computational Load Owners (CLO) and Computational Load Operators (CLOP) upon FERC approval of NERC's proposed revisions to the registry criteria in the NERC Rules of Procedure, which NERC filed with FERC on October 21.

Submit comments on the proposed data request and questions to ERO.Registration@nerc.net.

WECC Calendar at a Glance

For details on these events and more, see the WECC calendar.