Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Docket No. NP13-5-000 (October 31, 2012)
Reliability Standard: PRC-018-1
Requirement: 2
Violation Risk Factor: Lower
Violation Severity Level: Moderate
Region: SERC
Issue: TVA, in its role as TOP, self-reported that two of the 28 Disturbance Monitoring Equipment (DME) devices in its facilities did not comply with SERC Regional Criteria in violation of R2, as one of its generating plants with capacity over 800 MW, which connects to a 500 kV bus and then to two remote substations, lacked a DME device. In addition, TVA owned another DME device at a networked substation above 345 kV that was not configured to meet the SERC Regional Criteria.
Finding: SERC determined that the R2 violation posed a minimal risk to the reliability of the BPS since the DME devices are designed to support analysis of disturbances rather than prevent disturbances outright, and TVA had 26 properly configured DMEs (which were located near the missing and misconfigured DME devices). In addition, the combination of the properly configured DME devices and other monitoring devices made it likely that TVA could have analyzed most disturbances. SERC and TVA entered into a settlement agreement to resolve multiple violations, whereby TVA agreed to pay a penalty and to undertake other mitigation measures to come into compliance with SERC Regional Criteria. SERC considered TVA's documented internal compliance program a mitigating factor in making its penalty determination and also found that TVA's compliance history was not an aggravating factor. The duration of the violation was from June 18, 2007 through the present. TVA neither admits nor denies the R2 violation.
Penalty: $25,000 (aggregate for 4 violations)
FERC Order: Issued November 29, 2012 (no further review)
