To ensure the reliability of the bulk power system, NERC mediators focus on helping the Parties who have disagreements clearly identify their basic concerns and issues and use this information to develop a mutually agreeable resolution. To succeed, this mediation approach must encourage and require open communication, cooperation, and participation.
NERC Certification
Any entity that is or will be operating on the bulk power system as a balancing authority (BA), reliability coordinator (RC), or transmission operator (TOP) is required to have North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) certification.Mediation Procedures and CCC monitoring program
The NERC Compliance and Certification Committee (CCC) Mediation Program is designed as an informal, voluntary process in which a CCC mediation panel assists NERC and a Regional Entity to understand and work through disagreements or disputes concerning NERC performance audits of a Regional Entity's compliance program.
NERC Provisional Certification
The NERC Provisional Certification Process applies to those entities that satisfy one of the following requirements:
1) Entities previously certified as a NERC Control Area;
2) Entities listed in the NERC Compliance Registry and currently operating as a balancing authority (BA), reliability coordinator (RC), and/or a transmission operator (TOP).
Mediation is the intervention into a dispute or negotiation of an acceptable, impartial, and neutral third party panel that has no decision-making authority. The objective of the neutral third-party is to assist the parties in voluntarily reaching an acceptable resolution of the issues in dispute. The mediation process is voluntary and does not eliminate other dispute resolution options. Also, the mediation process is confidential, whether or not it results in settlement.
This alternative dispute resolution mechanism is intended to be a more collaborative, less
adversarial method to attain a mutually agreeable resolution to the dispute, consistent with the
NERC Rules of Procedure and without formal hearing proceedings.
The Parties to mediation are not obligated to reach agreement. If they do not reach a consensus,
either Party may elect to proceed with other more "traditional" methods of resolving the dispute.
In those instances where consensus is reached and memorialized in a written Mediation
Settlement Agreement, the agreements of the entities as expressed therein will be binding and
enforceable.
Each Party provides the chair of the CCC with introductory information such as brief statements of the nature and history of the dispute, participants' names, and contact information.
Mediators do not provide legal advice or counsel. Mediators also may not be called to testify in any legal, regulatory, administrative, or grievance proceedings concerning the mediation or its subject, nor may they be requested to provide documentation, records, etc., concerning the
mediation.
Organization Certification Program
NERC
maintains an Organization Certification Program, the goal of which is
to ensure that organizations who register to perform certain
responsible reliability functions deemed particularly crucial to
reliability of the bulk power system will meet or exceed certain
minimum criteria demonstrating that they are up to the task of
performing these functions. The process for certification of
organizations is included in NERC's Rules of Procedure, Section 500.
RESOURCE: NERC
