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NERC Practice Exam | Actual Questions and Answers Latest Updated
2025 /202 6 (Graded A+)
What percentage of load gives a 1 Hz change in an island condition? - ✔✔ 6 - 10% (Think 6 - 10 day island vacation) If ACE is Zero but system Hz is off, what should a system operator do? - ✔✔Nothing! ACE bias and interchange schedule will improve frequency If ACE is Zero, why not adjust generation to help frequency? - ✔✔Could overload equipment, this is a NERC violation When restoring from blackout condition, what should be done with load? - ✔✔All load breakers should be opened, load should be restored in a controlled manner not to exceed 5% of current available gen What's the point of COM-001? - ✔✔Each TO, BA, RC and NERCNet Use Orgs need to have good comms Where do they need to have comms? - ✔✔Internal, Between RC, TO and BA, Other RC, TO, BA and authorities Where applicable comms should be and routed. - ✔✔Redundant and Diversely routed, just in case something fails How do we know comms will be good? - ✔✔They will manage, alarm, test and/or actively monitor, especially emergency comm facilities and equipment (non-routine equipment) When can languages other than English be used? - ✔✔Only for internal operation, Operation of the BES requires comms in English
What is required so operation during a loss of comms will be ensured? - ✔✔Written operating instructions and procedures What is the point of COM-002? - ✔✔Ensure BA, TO, GO, and RC have comms and capability to use them for addressing emergency and that operators are trained to use them Who should a BA or TO notify if they are aware of any condition that could threaten area reliability or when shedding load? - ✔✔Notify their RC and any other potentially affected BA or TO How should directives be issued by an RC, TO or BA? - ✔✔In a clear, concise and definitive manner, using 3 part(way) communications Who is required to create a blackstart restoration plan? Who approves it? - ✔✔Transmission Operators; Its RC When is the blackstart condition finished? - ✔✔When the choice of the next load to be restored is not driven by frequency and voltage control Who directs the procedure for restoring interconnection between Tos? - ✔✔RC What must be done prior to implementing changes in a restoration plan? - ✔✔The parties invloved must be told of changes to their role and specific tasks prior to implementation. How often must the plan be confirmed given no changes were made? - ✔✔TO annually review the plan and report to RC After a system modification is made, how long does the TO have to update restoration plans? - ✔✔ 90 days Where is a copy of the restoration plan required to be kept? - ✔✔Main and backup control rooms
Name 4 things required in annual operator system restoration training: - ✔✔System restoration plan including coordination with RC and GO; Restoration Priorities; Building of cranking paths; Synchronizng How often and how much training is required for field switching personnel who are included in the system restoration plan? - ✔✔Minimum 2 hrs every 2 years When must a TO or GO participate in RC restoration drills, exercises or simulations? - ✔✔As requested by the RC What is a Blackstart Resource Agreement? - ✔✔This is an agreement between a TO and GO that includes the terms and conditions of the use of the Blackstart Unit; e.g. procedures, protocols, testing requirements What is required by each GO for their Blackstart Resources? - ✔✔Documented procuedures for starting each resource and energizing a bus Who must a GO notify if a Blackstart Resource ability to perform its function is changed? - ✔✔The TO who holds the agreement What is the time requirement for a GO to notify its TO when a Blackstart Resource capabilities are compromised? - ✔✔24 Hours Who is required to perform the agreed upon testing of a Blackstart Resource? - ✔✔The GO What minimum information should be recorded for a Blackstart Resource test? - ✔✔Name of Resource, unit tested, date of test, duration of test, time required to start, and any test requirements not met If requested by a TO or RC, when must Blackstart Resource test results be produced? - ✔✔The GO has 30 days to provide test results to its TO or RC How much time and how frequently must a GO train its personnel on starting a Blackstart Resource and energizing a bus? - ✔✔2 hours every 2 years minimum
What two things must be included in the GO Blackstart Resource biannual training? - ✔✔The system restoration plan including coordination with the TO; The procedures associated with the Blackstart Resource Agreement What must each RC have in regard to restoration? - ✔✔Each RC is required to have an RC Area Restoration Plan. Name the three things covered in the RC Area Restoration Plan? - ✔✔Blackstart Resources used to re- energize a shut down area of the BES; separation has occurred between neighboring RC; An energized island has been formed on the BES When does the RC exit the Restoration plan? - ✔✔All TO are interconnected its RC area is connected to all neighboring RC What 9 things are included in the RC restoration plan? - ✔✔High level strategy; Operating process to restore Interconnection; coordination elements between TO restoration plans; elements between RC plans; criteria and condition for reestablishing interconnections (TO-TO in the RC; TO-TO w/ other RC; w/ Other RC); Reporting requirements; Criteria for info sharing w/ neighboring RC and TO/BA in its area; RC as main contact for all parties; Criteria to transfer operations & authority back to BA Who is in control during system restoration? - ✔✔RC Who is given control after a system restoration has been completed? - ✔✔The appropriate BA To who must an RC distribute its RC Area Restoration Plan? - ✔✔Each of its TO, neighboring RC When must an RC distribute its RC Area Restoration Plan? - ✔✔Within 30 days of creation or revision of the plan How often must the RC review its restoration plan? - ✔✔Within 13 months from last review
What is the purpose of the Loss of Control Center Functionality standard? - ✔✔To ensure continued reliability of the BES in the event a control room is compromised What 3 entities does the Loss of Control Center Functionality standard apply to? - ✔✔TO, RC and BA What is each TO, BA and RC required to have in regard to the loss of primary control center functionality? - ✔✔Each must have an Operating Plan describing how it will continues to control the BES Name 5 things required to support a backup control centers functionality: - ✔✔Tools and applications giving BES situational awareness; Data comms; Voice comms; Power souce; Physical and cyber security Name 5 components of the Backup Control Facility Operating Plan: - ✔✔Location and method to provide backup functionality until primary is restored; a summary of backup functionality elements; plan to keep backup consisten with primary function; a transition period between loss of primary and fully implemented backup funcitionality; actions required to be taken during the transition Within what time frame must a backup control facility be fully functional? - ✔✔Less than or equal to two hours What 3 elements must be included in the control center transfer Operating Process? - ✔✔Entiites to notify; Actions to manage risk of the BES; Identification of Roles during transition Where must a copy of the control center transition Operating Plan be kept? - ✔✔A copy in the primary and backup control facilities How long can an RC have only one available control center? - ✔✔Planned outages of primary or backup facilities of two weeks or less do not require the minimum two facilities An RC backup control facility is not required to be available during what two conditions? - ✔✔Planned outages of two weeks or less; unplanned outages
What 4 things must be at a backup control facility in regard to operation of the BES? - ✔✔Monitoring, control, logging, and alarming sufficient for maintaining compliance with standards How often must a RC, BA, or TO review and approve its Operating Plan for Backup functionality? - ✔✔Annually If the Operating Plan for Backup functionality is changed, within what time frame must an update and approval be issued? - ✔✔60 days What does independence mean in regard to control rooms? - ✔✔The primary and backup functionality must not depend on each other for anything required to be in Reliability Standard compliance. What two things are required in the annual backup control facility functional test? - ✔✔The transition time between simulated loss of primary to fully functional backup facility; Backup functionality for minimum 2 hours If one control center is lost for a length of a plan must be submitted to the Regional Entityshowing how it will re-establish primary or backup functionality. - ✔✔6 months What is the purpose of the Event Reporting standard? - ✔✔Improved the reliability of the BES by requiring event reporting Within what time frame of meeting an event threshold must a responsible body report? - ✔✔Within 24 hours of recognition; on the weekend it is the end of the next business day How often must an Responsible Entity validate all contact information contained in the event reporting operating plan? - ✔✔Annually Events meeting event report threshold: - ✔✔Damage, destruction or physical threats physical threats to a facility, physical threats to a control center, public appeal for load reduction, system-wide voltage reduction >3%, manual or automatic firm load shedding >100MW; voltage deviation +/- 10% for 15 minutes; IROL or SOL violation, loss of Firm load, System separation (islanding), generation loss,
For how long must a BES control center be evacuated to meet the event reporting requirement? - ✔✔ 30 minutes After how long must a complete loss of voice communications be reported? - ✔✔ 30 minutes After how long does a complete loss of monitoring capability meet reporting threshold? - ✔✔ 30 minutes Describe Attachment 1 and attachment 2 of EOP- 004 Event Reporting: - ✔✔Att 1 is the events required to be reported; Att 2 is the Event Reporting Form What must a BA or TO with insufficient generation or transmission capacity have the capability and authority to do? - ✔✔Shed load rather than risk an uncontrolled failure of the interconnection' What must a BA or TO do prior to shedding load? - ✔✔All other remedial steps must be taken prior What could be the result of not shedding load? - ✔✔Uncontrolled failure or components or cascading outages A TO must coordinate its load shedding plans, excluding UFLS, with who? - ✔✔Other interconnected TO and BA What factors will be considered in designing an automatic UVLS? - ✔✔Voltage level, rate of voltage decay or power flow levels UVLS can be included in plans to preven t or minimize what? - ✔✔uncontrolled separation, loss of generation, or system shutdown Under what conditions would a BA or TO be required to continue shedding load? - ✔✔After separation from the Interconnection, if there is insufficeient generating capacity to restore frequency after UFLS
What must be done with shunt caps in arranging automatic load shedding? - ✔✔Arrange tripping of the shunt caps to prevent dropping load and leaving capacitors in service; excess voltage could occur What action must be included in real-time emergency plans for TO and BA operators? - ✔✔Manual load shedding must be capable of being implemented in a timeframe adequate for responding to the emergency What is given to each BA and RC to ensure the reliability of its respective area? - ✔✔Responsibility and clear decision-making authority to take watever actions are needed, and they shall exercise specific authroity to alleviate capacity and energy emergencies What is a BA required to do in regard to capacity and energy emergencies? - ✔✔A BA must take required and appropriate action(s) Which control system would be affected by a difference in the NIA and NIS? - ✔✔Automatic Generator Control What is the minimum Bias standard for a BA serving native load? - ✔✔1% of yearly peak demand per 0. Hz; eg 100MW/.1Hz What is unilateral payback? - ✔✔Making a non-zero ACE to payback time, the amount is limited by the BA L10. What is bilateral payback? - ✔✔This is payback that is set up as a schedule and would be part of the interchange schedule in ACE. This means there is no limit, but it requires more than one BA. What provides the initial response to frequency deviation? - ✔✔Frequency Bias Setting or frequency response characteristic is composed of Load/frequency response and Governor Action Under what condition should AGC be removed from service? - ✔✔If AGC is adversely impacting the reliability of the interconnection.
What is the most critical factor of a very long transmission power line with remote generation? - ✔✔SOLs and IROLs most limiting factor comes from angle stability limitations as those drive the power flow Is line loading of 100% acceptable? - ✔✔Technically this is still within SOL. A Reliability Adjustment Arranged Interchange must be approved by who? - ✔✔Only the source and sink, the key word to remember is Adjustment Each BA and RC shall have the and clear decision-making to take whatever actions are needed to ensure reliability of its respective area... - ✔✔responsibility and authority BA and RC are given responsibility and authority to make decisions to alleviate what? - ✔✔Capacity and energy emergencies What must a BA do when it is experiencing an operating capacity or energy emergency? - ✔✔Communicate its current and future system conditions to its RC and neighboring BA(s) Who must a BA notifiy if it is in an operating capacity or energy emergency? - ✔✔Its RC and neighboring BA According to EOP-002, what actions are acceptable in an operating capacity or energy emergency by a BA? - ✔✔Bringing on all available generation, postponing equipment maintenance, scheduling interchange purchases, and reduce firm load How long can a BA rely on the assistance provided by the Interconnections frequency bias? - ✔✔Only the time needed to implement corrective actions What could a unilateral adjustment in generation in an attempt to restore frequency cause? - ✔✔It may overload transmission facilities; don't do it
If a BA is not in compliance with CPS or DCS what actions must they do? - ✔✔Load all available generating capacity, deploying all available operating reserve, interrupting interruptible load and exports, requesting emergency assistance from other BA, declare a EEA with RC, and reduce load (public appeal, voltage reduction, curtailing, firm load drop) Name 4 examples of Load Reduction: - ✔✔Public appeal, voltage reductions, curtailing interruptible load, and firm load shedding Once and EEA is declared, who addresses the energy emergency? - ✔✔The RC How can an EEA be initiated? - ✔✔Only by an RC at the RCs own request, upon request of a BA or upon request of a LSE List two reasons an EEA can be initiated? - ✔✔A LSE is or expects to be unable to prvide its customers energy requirements and cannot locate available resources, or LSE cannot schedule due to ATC limits or transmission loading relief limits By what means does an RC notify other RCs of a declared EEA? - ✔✔The RCIS - Reliability Coordinator Information System Who does the RC notify after declaring an EEA? - ✔✔All BA and TO in their area, as well as all other RCs via the RCIS Who does the RC notify when an EEA is ended? - ✔✔The other RCs via RCIS What is an EEA 1? - ✔✔All available resources in use What is an EEA 2? - ✔✔Load Management prcoedures in effect What is an EEA 3? - ✔✔Firm load interuption imminent or in progress
What provision is required in a BA operating agreement for with adjacent BA? - ✔✔Adjacent BA shall contain provisions for emergency assistance, including through remote BAS The TO and BA shall develop, maintain and implement a set of plans for what 3 things? - ✔✔To mitigate operating emergencies for insufficient generating capacity, emergencies on the transmission system, and for load shedding Name the 4 things included in the BA and TO Operating Emergency plans: - ✔✔Communications protocols, a list of controlling actions to reolve the emergency (specifically load sheddin plans), tasks to be coordinated among adjacent TO and BA, staffing levels How often must the TO and BA review and update their emergency plan? - ✔✔Annually To who must copies of a TO and BA emergency plan be given? - ✔✔A copy will be provided to the RC and neighboring BA and TO What is CPS 1 Requirement? - ✔✔Each BA operates meeting its ACE 100% of the time on an hourly basis using one minute averages, meaning they are always helping the system out What is CPS 2 Requirement? - ✔✔Each BA operates such that its ACE for 90% or more is less than the set L10 limit, using ten minute periods during a month, can't help out too much What does the DCS do? - ✔✔Ensures a BA is able to utilize its contingency reserve What is the DCS? - ✔✔The Disturbance Control Standard is a measure of the loss of load in a BA What can be considered a supply of contingency reserve? - ✔✔Generation, controllable load resources, coordinated adjustments to Interchange Schedules What is the minimum amount of DCS required? - ✔✔At least enough Contingency Reserve to cover the most severe single contingency.
How often do probable contingencies need to be reviewed by the BA? - ✔✔Annually to determine the prospective most severe single contingencies What is the Disturbance Recovery Period? - ✔✔A BA must return ACE to zero (unless it was negative, then back to its spot) after a reportable disturbance How long is the Disturbance Recovery Period? - ✔✔A BA must return ACE to its proper value within 15 minutes What is the minimum that the DCS must be met for reportable events? - ✔✔100% of the events (return to ACE in 15 min; Disturbance Recovery Period) What is the Contingency Reserve Restoration Period? - ✔✔ 90 minutes from the end of the Disturbance Recovery Period (15 min); It is time to FULLY recover Contingency Reserve for its interconnection Following a Contingency or other event that results in an IROL violation, how long does the TO have to bring the system back into limits? - ✔✔As soon as possible and not to exceed 30 minutes Load management procedure in effect warrants what level of EEA? - ✔✔EEA 2 If all available resources to a BA are in use for meeting load and reserves, what is the corresponding EEA? - ✔✔EEA 1 Training staff must be identified and the staff must be competent in what two things? - ✔✔Knowledge of system operations and instructional capabilities Geo magnetic disturbances induce what type of current? - ✔✔Large amounts of low frequency current that can enter the system through grounds and cause equipment damage, namely to transformers How does BA include remote BA, jointly owned generation in its ACE? - ✔✔Using dynamic schedule and pseudo ties for its ACE, reflecting its respective share of the unit governor droop response in their Hz Bias.
What does angle instability refer to? - ✔✔The inability of the system to maintain magenetic bonds from one area to another due to large power angles Shared unit, fixed response. How is bias setup? - ✔✔The Host BA, holding the Unit, will incorporate the droop into its equation for all. The other BA(s) do not include the droop. BA serving native load minimum frequency bias is based on... - ✔✔The monthly average Frequency Bias is at least 1% of the BA estimated yearly peak demand per .1 Hz (Load = 1 % demand; No Load = 1 % Gen) BA not serving native load minimum frequency bias is based on... - ✔✔The montlhly average Frequency Bias is at least 1 % of the BA estimated yearly peak generation per .1 Hz (Load = 1 % demand; No Load = 1 % Gen) What does a BA need to do to Frequency Bias during Overlap? During Supplemental? - ✔✔Overlap = adjust Bias for the entire area; Supplemental = do nothing What is the normal mode AGC should be in? - ✔✔Tie Line Frequency Bias What is fixed frequency bias? - ✔✔It does not change throughout the year regardless of load, generation, etc. What is variable frequency bias? - ✔✔It changes depending on how much load there is, how much generation, which generators are in service, etc. Only a can be designated as the Interconnection Time Monitor - ✔✔RC How often is ACE calculated? - ✔✔At least every 6 seconds How often are CPS1 and CPS2 calculated and evaluated? - ✔✔Monthly
What three things make up Operating Reserve? - ✔✔Non-Spinning, Spinning and Regulating Reserve What two things make up Contingency Reserve? - ✔✔Non-Spinning and Spinning What is spinning reserve? - ✔✔Unloaded generation that is online and frequency responsive What is non-spinning reserve? - ✔✔Quick start gen, controllable load resources, interchange schedule; all available in less than 15 minutes How much contingency reserve needs to be carried by a BA? - ✔✔Enough to cover the most severe single contingency What percent of the most sever contingency is reportable? - ✔✔Equal to or greater than 80% of the most severe single contingency If a contingency is over 100% of the most severe single contingency, what must be done? - ✔✔It is not reportable. This is a multiple contingency event. How long does a BA have to recover from a reportable disturbance? - ✔✔Within 15 minutes, known as the disturbance recovery period How long is the Contingency Reserve Restoration period? - ✔✔ 90 minutes Multiple generators tripping within how long of one another is considered a single event? - ✔✔Within 60 seconds If DCS is not met in the quarterly report, then... - ✔✔The BA must increase its reserve for the calendar quarter, offset by one month (eg Jan-March, report April, consequence May-July) How often is DCS monitored and reported? - ✔✔Quarterly
