NRC hosts FERC for joint meeting on nuclear generation, grid reliability

Twenty years ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held their first joint meeting, spurred by the 2003 Northeast blackout during which, among other things, nine U.S. nuclear reactors tripped off line.

It was the blackout that led the two agencies and their respective commissioners to meet on occasion and provide joint updates, as they did on Thursday at the NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. There, NRC Chairman Ho Nieh highlighted the importance of grid reliability and nuclear safety.

"It was very clear that we have overlapping interests in what our agencies and commissions do to serve the American people with safe, reliable, and cost-effective energy," Nieh said about FERC. "We appreciate what you do for America's bulk power system. It's very important-America urgently needs more energy, and they really can't do that without your leadership."

FERC presents: Thursday's meeting provided both agencies a chance to discuss current issues, including grid reliability, managing load increases, and the status of existing and future nuclear power plant facilities.

Deepak Ramlatchan, deputy director of FERC's Office of Electric Reliability, used his time to recap the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC's) most recent long-term reliability assessment, which annually evaluates the U.S. and Canadian bulk electric systems over a 10-year period. According to the most recent assessment-published in February-summer peak demand is forecasted to grow by 224 GW over the next 10 years. This growth would be an almost 70 percent increase over the previous long-term forecast, with new data centers accounting for most of that projected increase, Ramlatchan said. As a result, FERC is looking at reforms regarding transmission service to large loads, including loads co-locating with or close to new generation.

Much like the NRC, FERC officials have looked at where to become more efficient. Ramlatchan highlighted the improvements made in the generator interconnection process. A best-case scenario now means the process can be finished in 375 days. Even a worst-case scenario of roughly two years or more is an improvement over the prior system, he said.

Ramlatchan also took time to dive into the topic of transferring capacity rights, a topic that has garnered more attention in the nuclear community as three decommissioned power plants attempt to restart. Some interconnection projects take this approach to bypass much of the interconnection study process, avoid network upgrades, and come on line quicker. The three ongoing restart projects have taken this approach in some form or another. Duane Arnold in Iowa is using interconnection rights transferred from a solar plant. And this summer, FERC approved a request to transfer interconnection rights from a gas-and-oil-powered plant to Crane in Pennsylvania.

"FERC has worked to remove barriers to new capacity, allowing waivers of tariff provisions to allow nuclear generation to return to commercial operation through the transfer of capacity interconnection rights, and in the case of Palisades (in Michigan), to ease deadlines that would have otherwise forced resources into more burdensome interconnection paths," he said.

FERC on the NRC: The presentation by NRC staff featured several topics discussed aplenty within the nuclear community: the agency's reorganization, Executive Order 14300, changes to power reactor programs, and optimizing reviews of new and advanced reactors. But for FERC commissioners, the presentation was a refresher on, or even an introduction to, developments they may not be so familiar with.

FERC Chair Laura Swett said she was impressed with the efficiencies the NRC had found during its reform efforts. Commissioner David Rosner said he was excited to hear about the small reactor designs that are in the works. Commissioner David LaCerte, too, appreciated the streamlining efforts at the NRC and the buy-in these efforts required from the commissioners and staff alike.

"I know we certainly appreciate it on our end of the table, because when we get one of these restart orders in front of us, the question is very simple: we have this asset-should we restart it to serve the American public or keep it mothballed? And the answer is simple for us, because you're all doing the hard work," LaCerte said about the NRC.

Earlier in the meeting, Swett described nuclear as her "first energy love," having been a nuclear associate following law school and having worked on the Indian Point relicensing proceedings. She said nuclear, along with natural gas, were the "two Hail Marys" that would address the energy concerns.

"From those very formative years, I realized how critical nuclear power is. It's really a national treasure, and it's gone through waxing and waning popularity in the public's psyche, but now there's no doubt that nuclear may be what saves all of us and our grid and prevents us, our grid from collapsing, given the impending load demand that we have," she said. "What you all are doing is of such great importance now, and perhaps we're finally entering the nuclear renaissance of the '20s and '30s that we've expected from quite a while ago."