On July 21, APGA submitted comments to the Gas Electric Harmonization (GEH) Committee of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), stating that the current GEH framework is operating as intended, and any updates to current standards are not required. GEH standards were last updated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2015.
APGA’s letter was in response to a request for comment issued by the GEH Committee late last month, which asked what, if any, changes should be made to GEH considering recent events, such as the severe winter weather experienced over Presidents’ Day Weekend this year, and grid modernization initiatives. Through its comments, APGA discussed the severe cold weather, including the associated historic natural gas price spike, and explained that this arose due to gas supply shortages and other issues, not a failure of GEH. Instead, APGA suggested that NAESB recommend curtailment prioritization changes to electric utilities, so as to not further perpetuate supply issues in future emergency situations. The NAESB GEH Committee is scheduled to meet again on July 28 to discuss all comments received and potential paths forward.
A copy of APGA’s comments is available
here.
For questions on this article, please contact Renée Lani of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0836 or by email at
rlani@apga.org.