Reliability Standards Committee

Chair(s): Rick Keetch
Vice Chair(s): Frank Owens 
Texas Regional Entity Facilitator: Reliability Standards Manager

The Reliability Standards Committee (RSC) reviews and recommends action on regional standards and regional variances to North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards. The RSC, annually elected within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region, is comprised of 16 standing members from the seven ERCOT market segments and ERCOT ISO.

The RSC reviews Standard Authorization Requests (SARs) and subsequent recommendations for the development, revision or deletion of regional standards and variances. A Standard Drafting Team (SDT) then drafts the standard. Once drafted, a proposed regional standard or variance is then approved by RSC.

The draft is then voted on by a ballot pool within the Registered Ballot Body (RBB). Each ERCOT member company may have one representative in the RBB.

If affirmed by vote, the regional standard or variance is forwarded to the Texas Regional Entity (Texas RE) Board of Directors for action. Before becoming effective, regional standards and regional variances must be approved by the Texas RE Board of Directors, the NERC board of trustees, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Regional reliability standards, when approved by FERC, are made part of the body of NERC Reliability Standards and are enforced upon all applicable bulk power system owners, operators, and users within the ERCOT region, regardless of membership in the region.

For more detailed information, see the Regional Reliability Standards Process.

To receive information about RSC activities, including draft standard commenting and ballot periods, status of regional standards, and formation of standard drafting teams, please subscribe to TexasRE_RSC@lists.ercot.com on ERCOT mail lists .