Ontario Electricity SO automates compliance wires

BANGALORE, INDIA: Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), one of the Independent System Operators (ISOs) in North America, has selected MetricStream’s Enterprise GRC Platform to streamline and automate implementation and monitoring of compliance to electric reliability standards laid down by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC).

As per a press release, the IESO works at the heart of Ontario's power system, connecting all participants - generators that produce electricity, transmitters that send it across the province, retailers that buy and sell it, industries that use it and local distribution companies. Overseeing 300 power entities in the region, the IESO ensures the reliable operation of the provincial electricity grid acting as the reliability co-coordinator for the province of Ontario, developing and enforcing reliability standards and ensuring compliance.

MetricStream will implement its compliance and policy management solution for enabling a systematic compliance monitoring process for NERC and NPPC electric reliability standards. The system will support integrating reliability standards, capture reporting from various market participant organizations in Ontario and ensuring compliance to those standards, and reporting compliance status to the standards authority.

Reliability compliance is a critical program for us. We must report on over a thousand standards and requirements for the large number participants in our energy market,” said Dan Rochester, Manager, Reliability Standards and Assessments at the IESO. “By using MetricStream we will be able to enhance our compliance efforts. We selected MetricStream because it was user friendly, secure and will integrate easily with our existing systems.”

The solution will provide a centralized data model, information routing, review and approval workflows, collaboration tools, task management, alerts, notifications and reporting for various functions such as recording reliability standards, assigning owners, informing regulatory stakeholders, conducting gap analysis, updating policies, developing compliance certification reports, gathering compliance information and evidence, assessing compliance, reporting compliance status and non-compliance, applying sanctions, coordinating corrective measures and implementing mitigation plans.