Reliability Standards

Reliability standards in Ontario are mandatory and enforced through the market rules that govern the operation of the electricity marketplace and bulk electric system. The IESO oversees reliability of the system through the enforcement of the market rules and adheres to the standards established by standards authorities including the Northeast Power Coordinating Council Inc. (NPCC Inc.), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the IESO itself.

The Market Rules (Chapter 5, section 14.1.4) require market participants to provide information related to reliability standards to the IESO. The IESO has developed the IESO Reliability Compliance Program (IRCP) to assist market participants in meeting these obligations.

Most monitored reliability standards typically apply to owners of generation and transmission facilities, although there are exceptions. Additionally, the requirement for market participants to make compliance submissions to the IESO will vary depending on the standard, the facility size and its impact on the IESO Controlled Grid (IGC). The IESO will send a request to you only if it deems the reliability standard applies to you.

Each year NERC, NPCC Inc., and the IESO select a subset of these standards for monitoring, which are listed on:

• 2007 IESO Reliability Compliance Program Schedule
• 2008 IESO Reliability Compliance Program Schedule

The posting and balloting procedures for proposed reliability standards are described in NERC's Reliability Standards Process Manual, which contains all the procedures governing the standards development process. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited process that NERC follows to develop its standards strives to resolve all comments submitted. Stakeholders who feel their comments are not satisfactorily resolved have the option to appeal. A detailed explanation of the appeals process appears on page 23 of the manual. The success of the NERC standards process depends on stakeholder participation.

To assist entities understand the applicability of various standards, in particular those that have just come into effect or will be effective in the near future (New Standards), NERC has developed a responsibility matrix that identifies all responsible entities for each requirement of a particular standard. This exercise has been repeated for all the standards resulting in an exhaustive matrix of applicability, by functional entity.

The IESO encourages all market participants to review the matrix and understand the applicability of the various standards. Any questions or issues can be addressed by communicating with IESO staff involved in the IESO Reliability Compliance program (IRCP), or by participating in the new Reliability Standards Standing Committee (RSSC) being established.

Additional information on NERC's Reliability Standards is available at: https://standards.nerc.net/.

More information on the IESO Reliability Compliance Program, the standard authorities and the standards are described in the folowing documents and websites.

Item	Description
Market Manual 7.9 - Reliability Compliance Program	Describes the IRCP and related processes
Market Manual 2.6 - Treatment of Compliance Issues	Describes the IESO Compliance Process
Market Manual 7.5 - Reliability Information Catalogue	Lists the required reliability information
NERC	NERC Website
NPCC Inc.	NPCC Inc. Website

As most standards are concerned with generation and transmission facilities, the IESO will direct all reliability compliance requests to the designated Reliability Compliance contact at your organization. Where a Reliability Compliance contact is not registered with the IESO, the request will be sent to the Main Contact. Should you wish to designate someone as the contact person for reliability compliance matters, please complete the Contract for Reliability Compliance Program form and return it to IRCP@ieso.ca.

All correspondence with regard to the IESO Reliability Compliance Program should be sent by e-mail (preferred), post or fax to:

1. E-mail: IRCP@ieso.ca
2. Post: IESO Reliability Compliance Program, c/o Ron Falsetti, Station A, Box 4474, Toronto, Ontario M5W 4E5
3. Fax: 905-855-6372

This applies to all submissions in response to the templates. All requests for information from the IESO will include an IESO contact person assigned to that particular request or template.

For general inquiries, contact Ron Falsetti at 905-855-6187.
For all other inquiries, contact IESO Customer Relations at:
Toll Free: 1-888-448-7777
Tel: 905-403-6900
Fax: 905-403-6921
E-mail: customer.relations@ieso.ca