FERC Updates Paperwork for Keeping Lights On
Published Date: 10/15/2026
Notice
Summary
FERC is updating how certain energy companies report important data to keep the power grid reliable. These changes affect operators who manage electricity flow and require them to provide updated info by November 16, 2026. No big cost changes are expected, but your feedback is welcome to help shape the final rules!
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 2 costs, 0 mixed.
Updated reporting rules and quantified compliance burden
FERC is proposing changes to reporting requirements under five reliability standards (MOD-032-2, IRO-010-6, TOP-003-8, MOD-033-3, and MOD-026-2) that affect balancing authorities, generator owners/operators, transmission owners/planners, planning coordinators, reliability coordinators, distribution providers, and transmission service providers. The notice gives estimated annual burdens and costs per standard: MOD-032-2 — 26,704 hours, $1,696,238.08; IRO-010-6 — 32,688 hours, $2,076,341.76; TOP-003-8 — 32,592 hours, $2,070,243.84; MOD-033-3 — 1,952 hours, $123,991.04; MOD-026-2 — 27,312 hours, $1,734,858.24.
Estimated addition of category-2 generators to compliance counts
The filing uses NERC estimates that 491 category 2 generator owners and 310 category 2 generator operators will be added to the NERC Compliance Registry counts, producing estimated totals used in the burden calculations (for example, generator owners total 1,834 and generator operators total 1,333 in the notice).
NERC glossary additions explicitly proposed
NERC seeks approval of new or revised NERC Glossary definitions including a definition of distributed energy resource (DER) and definitions of model validation and model verification. The notice explicitly states the new or modified NERC Glossary definitions are not expected to produce any new burden.
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Key Dates
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