Proposed Rulemaking for Natural Gas

Coordination between the electric sector and other critical infrastructure remains a high priority for the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) Enterprise to strengthen grid reliability. Earlier this year, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) submitted comments on Docket RM96‑1‑044 supporting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) proposal to incorporate by reference the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) Wholesale Gas Quadrant (WGQ) Version 4.0 Business Practice Standards for interstate natural gas pipelines. These standards aim to improve gas–electric coordination by streamlining access to publicly available operational data from interstate pipelines during system stress events such as extreme cold weather. While this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) applies only to interstate natural gas pipelines (and not the intrastate system that delivers most natural gas used for Texas power generation), many companies have subsidiaries in both interstate and intrastate markets and these standards will apply to part of their operations.

Incorporation of voluntary consensus standards like NAESB’s supports coordinated planning and helps ensure industry alignment in managing cross‑sector reliability risks. The impetus for this work traces back to recommendations contained in the joint ERO and FERC reports on winter storms Uri and Elliot regarding cold‑weather risks, interdependency challenges, and situational awareness. NERC actively supported the NAESB Gas Electric Harmonization Forum report from July 2023, which recommended 20 measures to improve gas-electric communication and reliability of natural gas facilities during cold weather events. These NAESB standards fulfill parts of those recommendations.

Overall, this complements NERCs Electricity-Natural Gas Strategy and work plan to identify, assess, and facilitate ongoing and future treatment of the risks that arise from the growing reliance on natural gas for electricity generation. That work includes updates to Reliability Standards EOP-011-4, TOP-002-5, TPL-008-1, BAL-007-1 and EOP-012-3.