The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a not-for-profit regulatory organization operating in the United States, Canada, and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico.
NERC ensures reliability of the bulk power system by developing and enforcing system standards.
NERC Standard PRC-005 was created to assess seasonal and long-term reliability of batteries used in the utility industry. Through this requirement, system awareness is created while NERC works to educate, train, and certify industry personnel.
Maintenance Requirements
PRC-005 provides an outline of 4-, 6-, and 18-month maintenance activities that must be performed on VLA, VRLA, and NiCad batteries in utility environments to remain compliant.
Refer to Table 1-4(f) in PRC-005
There is also a retention of records requirement that must be maintained to demonstrate that the time intervals outline above have been satisfied.
How to Comply
There are many ways in which compliance of this standard can be achieved. It can be managed internally by utility employees that are equipped with the necessary tools. These include handheld battery testers, comprehensive battery monitoring systems, and various software applications that are readily available for purchase.
If you don’t have the staff on-hand or don’t want to expend internal resources, compliance can also be achieved by hiring an outside agency to complete and track these maintenance requirements.