Reliability Standard: NUC-001-2
Requirement: R4
Violation Risk Factor: High
Violation Severity Level: Lower
Region: ReliabilityFirst
Issue: MISO self-reported that due to incorrect control settings for its Network Model, its ability to monitor nuclear plan interfaces within its RC area, as required by the Nuclear Plan Interface Requirements, was diminished.
Finding: ReliabilityFirst determined that the violation posed only a minimal risk to the BPS reliability since the use of its SCADA and Nuclear Plant Voltage Monitoring tool, MISO was able to continue performing real-time voltage monitoring and voltage drop monitoring, respectively. In addition, SOLs, IROLs and Nuclear Plant Interface Requirements are not applicable to the facilities at issue. There were no pre-contingency or Nuclear Plant Interface Requirement violations and MISO's Nuclear Plant Operating Agreements did not include provisions MISO to monitor any facilities. MISO neither admitted nor denied the violations. In approving the settlement agreement, the NERC BOTCC found that issues related to MISO's Network Model were only associated with the monitoring of post-contingent element conditions and did not hinder MISO's ability to perform other monitoring functions. Moreover, the issues were not related, affected a small percentage of the facilities MISO monitors and were indicative of other technologies that depend on large amounts of data. This was MISO's first violation of the standard and none of the violations posed a serious or substantial threat to BPS reliability. While MISO self-reported the violations, they were delayed. But MISO did have an internal compliance program in place, which ReliabilityFirst considered a mitigating factor. MISO was cooperative throughout the duration of the violation and there was no evidence that it attempted to conceal the violations.
Penalty: $0 (aggregate for 4 violations)
FERC Order: Pending
