During the April Federal Energy Regulatory Commission open meeting, Mark Lauby, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s senior vice president and chief engineer, briefed FERC about recent load loss events.
He provided insights into several initiatives launched by NERC to address the reliability impacts of large load integration with the grid.
Since 2023, NERC has hosted several panel discussions and published a large load incident report. NERC also formed a Large Loads Task Force (LLTF) in 2024 to examine the risks and impacts of large loads through whitepapers and guidelines, which are expected to be released between 2025 and 2026.
During NERC’s February 2025 Board meeting, the Board directed NERC to create an action plan to develop industry guidance on large loads, including incorporating work by the task force.
Based on these activities, NERC recommends the continued examination of specific reliability implications of large loads and provisions for data or information sharing to support system operators in performing reliability analyses, as well as coordination, load balancing, and accurate modeling for large loads co-located with generation resources.
