Modifications to Section 1600 Data Request for Generating Availability Data System (GADS)

In accordance with NERC’s Rule of Procedure, Section 1600 Data Requests must include a 45-day public comment period. NERC is seeking to update the GADS Section 1600 data request to add value by expanding GADS reporting to include:

• Solar (new): 
• Inventory/configuration, event reporting, and performance data 
• Inventory/configuration of connected energy storage and performance data
• GADS Wind extensions: 
• Event reporting and connected energy storage
• Changes to configuration data to support event reporting, and 
• Expansion of mandatory data reporting fields
• Conventional GADS extensions:
• Unit design data that is comparable to the types of information being collected for wind and solar 
• Contributing Operating Conditions Code

The Reliability and Security Technical Committee reviewed the proposed modifications to the GADS Section 1600 Data Request and approved a 45-day posting for industry comment. Comments should be provided via email by 8:00 p.m. Eastern on July 31, 2021, using the comment form at the link below.

In February 2021, the central United States experienced extended periods of record low temperatures creating conditions which resulted in power outages across multiple states. In the interest of being able to identify generator events that were a direct result of the low temperatures, NERC and the GADS User Group (GADSUG) are requesting that entities use the following reporting guidelines.

Cause Coding During the Cold Weather Event

For events that occurred from February 8, 2021 through February 20, 2021 and that were a result of the cold weather event.

1. Create and code the event as is normally done.
• Identify any equipment that failed using the Primary Cause Code.
• If additional cause codes are necessary, include them as the secondary, tertiary, etc… causes.
2. Add an additional cause code, 9036 – Storms (Ice, snow, etc), after adding all Cause Codes that would normally be included.
3. Ensure that the Description of the event is filled out.
• Describe what happened to cause the outage.
• If possible, include information on whether or not the equipment was considered winterized at the time of the event.

Events which are not attributable to the cold weather event during this period should be reported as usual  

For more information: GADS 2021 Cold Weather Event Reporting   

For details and implementation steps, click on https://gadsopensource.com/NERCNews.aspx

Effective April 29, 2020, NERC has added cause code 9015 – Pandemic for reporting events that are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is an OMC cause code listed within the External: Catastrophes table and applies to all unit types.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic is classified as an OMC catastrophe, it falls under the definition of “unexpected problems or conditions”. It is not part of the scope of an outage and cannot be used as the reason for an extension. Therefore, you must add a forced event to account for pandemic effects instead of an extension of the original event.

For more details from the NERC GADS website by clicking on this link:  Addendum 1 - Pandemic Cause Codes

To download your GADS OS updated cause code database, click on this link: Cause Code Updater

Using method “3. Download” on the page, you can now download the CauseCodesen-US.mdb file (it’s in CauseCodesen-US.zip).

This will simply require that you download the mdb file into the GADSOSCCUpdater folder and then run the Cause Code Updater application … no software installation required.

IMPORTANT: In Window 7 and above, using Windows Explorer browse to the location the downloaded ZIP file was saved to, right-click on the file, bring up its properties, and "Unblock" the file ... then press "Apply".  Then you can unzip the mdb file.