Article 7.

POWER RELIABILITY.

R8-40     REPORT OF IMPENDING EMERGENCIES, LOAD REDUCTIONS AND SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS IN BULK ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY AND RELATED POWER SUPPLY FACILITIES.

(a)  Definitions. — For the purpose of this rule, a bulk electric power supply interruption shall be any interruption or loss of service to customers of any public electric utility, or electric membership corporation engaged in the generation or transmission of electric energy caused by or involving an outage of any generating unit or of electric facilities operating at a nominal voltage of 69 kV or higher. In determining the aggregate of loads which are interrupted, any load which is interrupted in accordance with the provisions of contracts permitting interruptions in service shall not be included.

(b)  Telephonic Reports. — Every public electric utility and electric membership corporation engaged in the generation or transmission of electric energy shall report promptly (Monday - Friday, during regular work hours) to the Operations Division of the Commission Staff and the Electric Division of the Public Staff of the North Carolina Utilities Commission by telephone any event as described below:

(1)           Any decision to issue a public request for reduction in use of electricity.

(2)           Any action to reduce firm customer loads by reduction of voltage for reasons of maintaining adequacy of bulk electric power supply.

(3)           Any action to reduce firm customer loads by manual switching, operation of automatic loadshedding devices, or any other means for reasons of maintaining adequacy of bulk electric power supply.

(4)           Any loss in service for 15 minutes or more of bulk electric power supply to aggregate loads in excess of 200,000 kW.

(5)           Any outage in bulk power supply facilities, accident to system facilities, delays in construction, or substantial delays in making repairs following unscheduled outages that are of consequence on a subregional or State basis, or which may constitute an unusual hazard to the reliability of electric service.

(c)  Telegraphic or Telephonic Reports. — Every public electric utility and electric membership corporation engaged in the generation or transmission of electric energy shall report any event as described below to the Operations Division of the Commission Staff and Electric Division of the Public Staff of the North Carolina Utilities Commission by telephone or telegram.

These reports are to be made no later than the beginning of the Commission's next regular work day (Monday - Friday) after the interruption occurred. Events requiring a report are as follows:

Any loss in service for 15 minutes or more of bulk electric power supply to aggregate loads exceeding the lesser of 100,000 kW or half of the current annual system peak load, and not required to be reported under subsection (b). See subsection (d) for information to be reported.

(d)  Information to Be Reported. — The information supplied in the initial report should include at least the approximate territory affected by the interruption, the time of occurrence, the duration, or an appraisal of the likely duration, if service is still interrupted, an estimate of the number of customers and amount of load involved, and whether any known critical services, such as hospitals, pumping stations, traffic control systems, etc., were interrupted. To the extent known or suspected, the report desirably will include a description of the initial incident resulting in the interruption. The Commission or its representative may require further reports during or after the period of interruption and restoration of service, such reports to be made by telephone, telegraph or letter, as required.

(e)  Special Investigations and Reports.

(1)           If so directed by the Commission, an entity experiencing a condition, as described in subsections (b) and (c), shall submit a full report of the circumstances surrounding such occurrence and the conclusions the entity has drawn therefrom. The report shall be filed at such time  subsequent to the submittal of the initial report by telephone or telegraph as may be directed by the Commission.

(2)           The report shall be prepared in such detail as may be appropriate to the severity and complexity of the incident experienced and should include an account understandable to the informed layman in addition to the following technical and other information:

(i)            The cause or causes of the incident clearly described, including the manner in which it was initiated.

(ii)           A description of any operating conditions of an unusual nature preceding the initiation of the incident.

(iii)          If the incident was an interruption and geographically widespread, an enumeration of the sequence of events contributing to its spread.

(iv)          An account of the measures taken which prevented further spreading in the loss of service, e.g., manual or automatic load shedding, unit isolation, or system sectionalization. These actions and all chronicled events should be keyed to a record of the coincident frequencies which occurred.

(v)           A description of the measures taken to restore service with particular evaluation of the availability of start up power and the ease or difficulty of restoration.

(vi)          A statement of the capacity of the transmission lines into  the area of load interruption, the generating capacity in operation in the area at the beginning of the disturbance, and the actual loading on the generating units and, where available, the loading on the lines at that time. When actual loadings are not available, estimate the line loadings at the time to the extent possible.

(vii)         A summary description of any equipment damage and the status of its repair.

(viii)        A description of the impact of any load reduction or interruption on people and industries in the affected area, including a copy of materials in the printed news media indicative of the impact.

(ix)          Information on the steps taken, being taken, or planned by the utility, to prevent recurrence of conditions of a similar nature, to ease problems of service restoration, and to minimize impacts on the public and the customers of any future conditions of a similar nature.

(NCUC Docket No. E-100, Sub 8, 12/30/70; NCUC Docket No. M-100, Sub 75, 10/27/77; NCUC Docket No. M-100, Sub 140, 12/03/13.)