The Commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conducted a biennial joint meeting on January 25, 2024. The biennial meetings allow the Commissioners to hear presentations from industry experts, learn about the challenges facing the energy industry, and determine how the commissions can assist each other based on their respective regulatory authorities.
As NRC Chairman Christopher T. Hanson stated, “the word of the day is ‘interconnection’”—both interconnection by plugging into the grid and interconnection by increasing cooperation between the agencies.
From a regulatory perspective, the commissions each have distinct purposes. FERC has jurisdiction over grid reliability while NRC regulates nuclear safety. Inevitably, these jurisdictions contain overlaps. The Commissioners stated at the meeting that they recognize that in order to overcome industry challenges, they must determine where jurisdictional overlaps and gaps exist, decide upon bright-line duties in overlaps, and ensure there are no regulatory gaps that are detrimental to either agency’s purpose.
The 2024 meeting included presentations from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), FERC staff, and NRC staff on the primary topics of grid reliability, nuclear technology advances, and security.
Grid Reliability
In a presentation by Mark Lauby, NERC’s Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer, it was relayed that large portions of the United States will face substantial reliability concerns over the next 10 years. The middle portions of the United States, including Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Southeastern Electric Reliability Council Central areas, are at a high risk for supply shortfall based on forecasted conditions, while areas west of the Mississippi River are at an elevated risk for outages in extreme weather conditions.
Lauby and FERC staff explained that these predicted outages are a result of substantial generation facility retirements in the future; increased electricity needs; increased reliance on indeterminate resources, such as solar and wind; extreme weather events; and a lack of black start facilities, which restore electricity to the grid without using an outside electrical supply.
NRC staff explained that nuclear power could assist in combating reliability concerns. As a clean energy source with a high capacity factor, nuclear is able to provide constant, reliable energy. Further, nuclear does not face the same concerns that other base-load generation sources face during extreme weather. As displayed in Winter Storm Elliot, natural gas facilities were not able to receive fuel because the fuel heads froze—nuclear does not face this same concern.
Lastly, NRC staff explained that they are preparing for facilities to seek license renewals up to 100 years. The ability for a nuclear facility to operate for 100 years would decrease reliability concerns caused from facility retirements.
Nuclear Technology Advances
Both commissions expressed interest in the increased technological feasibility of small modular reactors (SMRs). As NRC staff explained, they are expecting to receive approximately 25 applications for new and advanced reactors in the next five years, some of which are SMRs.
In preparation, NRC staff is determining what regulation modifications or exemptions will be required. NRC staff stated that they plan to have SMRs on a “fast track” for licensing, which could be advantageous in assisting FERC with reliability concerns.
Security
The Commissioners expressed interest in increased physical and cybersecurity concerns. For physical attacks, all generation facilities face risks ranging from petty vandalism to terrorist attacks. For cyberattacks, as FERC staff presented, technological advances pose both benefits and concerns for cybersecurity. While malicious actors have increased arsenals for a cyberattack, advances in the Cloud and artificial intelligence could permit facilities to broaden their defense capabilities.
While the Commissioners were not able to reconcile their regulatory authority during the meeting to better support physical security concerns, they expressed that cybersecurity concerns would benefit from increased agency cooperation to ensure there are no cybersecurity regulatory gaps.