§ 1730.21 - Inspections and tests.

§ 1730.21 Inspections and tests.

(a) Each borrower shall conduct all necessary inspections and tests of the component parts of its electric system, annually exercise its ERP, and maintain records of such inspections and tests. For the purpose of this part, “Exercise” means a borrower's Tabletop execution of, or actual implementation of, the ERP to verify the operability of the ERP. Such Exercise may be performed singly by an individual borrower, or as an active participant in a multi-party (to include utilities, government agencies and other participants or combination thereof) Tabletop execution or actual full implementation of the ERP. For the purpose of this part, “Tabletop” means a hypothetical emergency response scenario in which participants will identify the policy, communication, resources, data, coordination, and organizational elements associated with an emergency response.

(b) The frequency of inspection and testing will be determined by the borrower in conformance with applicable laws, regulations, national standards, and Prudent Utility Practice. The frequency of inspection and testing will be determined giving due consideration to the type of facilities or equipment, manufacturer's recommendations, age, operating environment and hazards to which the facilities are exposed, consequences of failure, and results of previous inspections and tests. The records of such inspections and tests will be retained in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and Prudent Utility Practice. The retention period should be of a sufficient time period to identify long-term trends. Records must be retained at least until the applicable inspections or tests are repeated.

(c) Inspections of facilities must include a determination of whether the facility complies with the National Electrical Safety Code, National Electrical Code (as applicable), and applicable State or local regulations and whether additional security measures are considered necessary to reduce the vulnerability of those facilities which, if damaged or destroyed, would severely impact the reliability and security of the electric power grid, cause significant risk to the safety and health of the public and/or impact the ability to provide service to consumers over an extended period of time. The electric power grid, also known as the transmission grid, consists of a network of electrical lines and related facilities, including certain substations, used to connect distribution facilities to generation facilities, and includes bulk transmission and subtransmission facilities as defined in § 1710.2 of this title. Any serious or life-threatening deficiencies shall be promptly repaired, disconnected, or isolated in accordance with applicable codes or regulations. Any other deficiencies found as a result of such inspections and tests are to be recorded and those records are to be maintained until such deficiencies are corrected or for the retention period required by paragraph (b) of this section, whichever is longer.

[63 FR 3450, Jan. 23, 1998, as amended at 69 FR 60540, Oct. 12, 2004]