OTTAWA - A bilateral working group from the United States
and Canada will address key issues related to electricity reliability in North
America. The terms of reference for the Bilateral Electric Reliability Oversight
Group (or Bilateral Group) were announced today by R. John Efford, Minister of
Natural Resources Canada; Dwight Duncan, Ontario Minister of Energy; Samuel W.
Bodman, U.S. Secretary of Energy; and Pat Wood, III, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC).
"The consequences of the August 2003 power outage demonstrated the importance
of cooperating with other governments and regulators in North America to ensure
the reliability of our interconnected grid," said Minister Efford. "This
Bilateral Group commits to maintaining an open dialogue with our U.S. and
provincial colleagues on international issues related to our electric
system."
"We have one North American grid, and it is essential that all participants
in bulk power operations know and adhere to the rules," said U.S. Energy
Secretary Bodman. "The affected government agencies have a special burden to
speak in a coordinated way on reliability matters to the industry and its
reliability organizations. The Bilateral Group will help us do that."
"Maintaining high reliability standards across the international grid is
critical to keeping the lights on," said Minister Duncan. "This commitment to
cooperation will benefit all of us."
U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood said, "Amid the
growing energy interdependency between the United States and Canada, the August
2003 blackout painfully reminded us that blackouts do not respect national
boundaries. This agreement to consult on an international reliability framework
is consistent with many of the recommendations of the U.S.-Canada Power System
Outage Task Force report and the goals of the pending U.S. energy bill."
The Bilateral Group will consult on the establishment of an international
framework for reliability and issues related to international aspects of
mandatory reliability standards in North America. It commits to the following
actions:
developing principles to guide the establishment of a reliability
organization that can function on an international basis;
coordinating the electric reliability standards process; and
consulting on policy and regulatory issues surrounding reliability
The Bilateral Group comprises representatives from the U.S. Department of
Energy, FERC and
the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Electricity Working Group of the Canadian
Council of Energy Ministers, with assistance from the Department of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade and the U.S. Department of State.
This initiative is part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a
trilateral agenda to increase the security, prosperity and quality of life in
North America.
FOR BROADCAST USE:
A bilateral working group will contribute to establishing mandatory standards
for electricity reliability in North America. Mandatory standards were a
recommendation of the Task Force on the August 2003 power outage. The Bilateral
Group includes representatives of the governments of Canada and Ontario, on
behalf of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Electricity Working Group, and
the United States.
For more information, media may contact:
Ghyslain Charron
Tom Ormsby
Media Relations
Director of Communications
Natural Resources Canada
Office of the Minister
Ottawa
Natural Resources Canada
(613) 992-4447
Ottawa
(613) 996-2007
Ted Gruetzner
Communications Branch
Ontario Ministry of Energy
(416) 327-4334
The following media backgrounder is also available:
Terms
of Reference for Bilateral Electric Reliability Oversight Group
