NERC Warns Many Inverters’ Information Not Up to Date

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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a Level 3 alert due to significant shortcomings in the information provided by inverter owners regarding their equipment. This alert, which requires approval from NERC's Board of Trustees, follows a Level 2 alert that highlighted concerns over inverter-based resources (IBRs) and their modeling practices after recent grid disturbances. The report emphasizes the need for generator owners (GOs), transmission planners (TPs), and planning coordinators (PCs) to maintain accurate and up-to-date information about their inverters, including specifications and operational settings.

Feedback from stakeholders revealed that many GOs do not keep the requested data readily available, relying instead on original equipment manufacturers and consultants for information. This reliance complicates event analysis and raises questions about the quality of planning data. Furthermore, a significant majority of GOs submit only standard library models rather than the required manufacturer-specific models, which could impact the accuracy of interconnection studies. Concerns about cybersecurity have also been raised due to the dominance of a few manufacturers in the inverter market, potentially leading to shared vulnerabilities across their products.