WASHINGTON, DC - The Energy and Power Subcommittee today released its discussion draft on Energy Reliability and Security to be included in the committee’s Architecture of Abundance energy legislation. The subcommittee will review the draft legislation at a hearing on Tuesday, May 19, 2015. Witnesses and details will be announced.
This section of the bill seeks to update our nation’s energy infrastructure and ensure it is secure, resilient, and reliable. Changing market dynamics, new regulations, and increasing threats have created new energy security and reliability challenges, particularly for the nation’s electricity sector. At the same time, innovation and advanced technologies offer new opportunities to improve and bolster the nation’s electricity system. The draft legislation seeks to meet today’s modern energy challenges and opportunities by including a number of forward-looking, commonsense solutions.
The Energy Reliability and Security discussion draft seeks to:
* Resolve conflicts between environmental regulations and Department of Energy emergency reliability orders
* Analyze the reliability impacts of major federal regulations affecting electricity generation
* Establish an emergency preparedness plan for energy supply disruptions to oil and gas infrastructure
* Address grid security emergencies resulting from physical attacks, cyber attacks, and electromagnetic pulse
* Facilitate the sharing of critical electric infrastructure information between the private sector and federal government
* Review the feasibility of establishing a federal Strategic Transformer Reserve to store flexible, “plug-and-play" power transformers that could temporarily replace damaged transformers in the event of a grid attack or other disturbance
* Identify and promote cyber-secure products and technologies for use in the bulk-power system
* Promote state utilization of resiliency-related and advanced energy analytics technologies and policies to ensure sufficient baseload generation
* Provide for reliability and performance assurance in organized wholesale electricity markets
“We are working to keep the lights on. Access to electricity is critical to our economy, national security, and the wellbeing of every single American. This collection of proactive and innovative solutions will reduce our grid’s vulnerabilities and help ensure the reliable flow of power to households and businesses," commented House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).
