History of reliability regulation in North America

Date	Event	Standards development
1965	Northeast Blackout(major outage)	No mandatory standards in the United States No mandatory standards in Québec – Hydro-Québec voluntarily applies existing standards. See Reliability News No.2 for pre-2003 context.
1966	Creation of the NPCC
1968	Creation of NERC
1996	WSCC Blackout (major outage)
1997	WSCC (Compliance Program)
2003	Northeast Blackout (massive outage)
2006	Energy Policy Act Designation of NERC as electric reliability organization (ERO) for the United States by FERC Enactment of Bill 52 in Québec	The Energy Policy Act gave new powers to FERC and instituted the regime of mandatory standards in the United States. The new law gave the Régie de l’énergie new powers to monitor the application of mandatory standards in Québec.
2007	Designation of the Reliability Coordinator for Québec	The Régie de l’énergie designated CME as Reliability Coordinator.
2009	Agreements signed for the development of reliability standards and monitoring their application	The Régie de l’énergie enters into agreements with NERC and NPCC.
2011	Southwest Blackout (major outage)	NERC updates the definition of BES to use specific criteria to designate facilities.
2014	New definition of the BES issued by NERC
2015	Coming into force of the mandatory standards regime in Québec	The Régie de l’énergie put Québec’s first mandatory reliability standards into effect.
2016	Coming into force of the Sanctions Guide	The Régie de l’énergie designates the DPCMEER as Reliability Coordinator and brings into force the Sanction Guide for the Enforcement of the Reliability Standards in Effect in Québec.
2017	Change in the designation of the Reliability Coordinator for Québec
2021	Change in the designation of the Reliability Coordinator for Québec	The Régie de l’énergie designates the DPCMEER as Reliability Coordinator.
2023	Revised definition of the Main Transmission System (RTP) in Québec
2024	FERC approves NERC’s revision to its Rules of Procedure to add new functions	Expansion of the scope of reliability standards for generating resources connected to inverters of more than 20 MVA.

Acronyms

FERC	Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
ERO	Electric Reliability Organization
NERC	North American Electric Reliability Corporation
NPCC	Northeastern Power Coordinating Council
WECC	Western Electric Coordinating Council
CME	Former Contrôle des mouvements d’énergie [system control], initially a Hydro-Québec unit and later a directorate
DPCMEER	Hydro-Québec’s Direction principale – Contrôle des mouvements d’énergie et exploitation du réseau [system control and operation]
BES	Bulk Electric System