A consortium for Electric Reliability technology research under competition

Following the outages on the Western System in 1996, the Secretary of Energy convened the Task Force on Electric System Reliability to provide advice to the Department of Energy (DOE) on the critical institutional, technical, and policy issues related to maintaining reliability of the electric system in the context of competition. One of six position papers developed by the Task Force, "Technical Issues in Transmission System Reliability," May 1998, contains eight specific recommendations to maintain the reliability of the Nation\´s transmission system. One recommendation responds to the Task Force concern that reliability-related R&D with its long-term focus might be underfunded by market forces alone. The recommendation resulting from this concern gave responsibility to DOE to monitor research activity on reliability technologies to assure that gaps do not develop. Congress responded by appropriating funds in the FY 1999 budget directing the Department to support a national laboratory/electricity industry partnership to conduct research on reliability of the Nation\´s electricity infrastructure. Creation of the Consortium In 1998, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and what is now the Electric Power Group (EPG), initiated development of the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) as the national laboratory/electricity industry partnership.