Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2196Show full title

SECTION 1 U.K. General provisions

Article 11 U.K. Design of the system defence plan

1. By 18 December 2018, each TSO shall design a system defence plan in consultation with relevant DSOs, SGUs, national regulatory authorities, or entities referred to in Article 4(3), neighbouring TSOs and the other TSOs in its synchronous area.

2. When designing its system defence plan, each TSO shall take into account at least the following elements:

(a) the operational security limits set out in accordance with Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1485;

(b) the behaviour and capabilities of load and generation within the synchronous area;

(c) the specific needs of the high priority significant grid users listed pursuant to point (d) of paragraph 4; and

(d) the characteristics of its transmission system and of the underlying DSOs systems.

3. The system defence plan shall contain at least the following provisions:

(a) the conditions under which the system defence plan is activated, in accordance with Article 13;

(b) the system defence plan instructions to be issued by the TSO; and

(c) the measures subject to real-time consultation or coordination with the identified parties.

4. In particular, the system defence plan shall include the following elements:

(a) a list of the measures to be implemented by the TSO on its installations;

(b) a list of the measures to be implemented by DSOs and of the DSOs responsible for implementing those measures on their installations;

(c) a list of the SGUs responsible for implementing on their installations the measures that result from the mandatory requirements set out in Regulation (EU) 2016/631, (EU) 2016/1388 and (EU) 2016/1447 or from national legislation and a list of the measures to be implemented by those SGUs;

(d) a list of high priority significant grid users and the terms and conditions for their disconnection, and

(e) the implementation deadlines for each measure listed in the system defence plan.

5. The system defence plan shall include at least the following technical and organisational measures specified in Section 2 of Chapter II:

(a) system protection schemes including at least:

(i)

automatic under-frequency control scheme in accordance with Article 15;

(ii)

automatic over-frequency control scheme in accordance with Article 16; and

(iii)

automatic scheme against voltage collapse in accordance with Article 17.

(b) system defence plan procedures, including at least:

(i)

frequency deviation management procedure in accordance with Article 18;

(ii)

voltage deviation management procedure in accordance with Article 19;

(iii)

power flow management procedure in accordance with Article 20;

(iv)

assistance for active power procedure in accordance with Article 21; and

(v)

manual demand disconnection procedure in accordance with Article 22.

6. The measures contained in the system defence plan shall comply with the following principles:

(a) their impact on the system users shall be minimal;

(b) they shall be economically efficient;

(c) only those measures that are necessary shall be activated; and

(d) they shall not lead the TSO's transmission system or the interconnected transmission systems into emergency state or blackout state.

Article 12 U.K. Implementation of the system defence plan

1. By 18 December 2019 each TSO shall implement those measures of its system defence plan that are to be implemented on the transmission system. It shall maintain the implemented measures henceforth.

2. By 18 December 2018 each TSO shall notify the transmission connected DSOs of the measures, including the deadlines for implementation, which are to be implemented on:

(a) the DSO's installations pursuant to Article 11(4); or

(b) the installations of SGUs identified pursuant to Article 11(4) connected to their distribution systems; or

(c) the installations of defence service providers connected to their distribution systems; or

(d) the installations of DSOs connected to their distribution systems.

3. By 18 December 2018 each TSO shall notify the SGUs identified pursuant to point (c) of Article 11(4) or the defence service providers directly connected to its transmission system of the measures which are to be implemented on their installations, including the deadlines for the implementation.

4. When provided for in national legislation, the TSO shall notify directly SGUs identified pursuant to point (c) of Article 11(4), defence service providers or DSOs connected to distribution systems of the measures which are to be implemented on their installations, including the deadlines for their implementation. It shall inform the concerned DSO of this notification.

5. Where a TSO notifies a DSO in accordance with paragraph 2, the DSO shall notify in turn, without delay, the SGUs, the defence service providers and the DSOs connected to its distribution system of the measures of the system defence plan that they have to implement on their respective installations, including the deadlines for their implementation.

6. Each notified DSO, SGU and defence service provider shall:

(a) implement the measures notified pursuant to this Article no later than 12 months from the date of notification;

(b) confirm the implementation of the measures to the notifying system operator, who shall, when different from the TSO, notify the confirmation to the TSO; and

(c) maintain the measures implemented on its installations.

Article 13 U.K. Activation of the system defence plan

1. Each TSO shall activate the procedures of its system defence plan pursuant to point (b) of Article 11(5) in coordination with DSOs and SGUs identified pursuant to Article 11(4) and with defence service providers.

2. In addition to the automatically activated schemes of the system defence plan, pursuant to point (a) of Article 11(5), each TSO shall activate a procedure of the system defence plan when:

(a) the system is in emergency state in accordance with the criteria set out in Article 18(3) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1485 and there are no remedial actions available to restore the system to the normal state; or

(b) based on the operational security analysis, the operational security of the transmission system requires the activation of a measure of the system defence plan pursuant to Article 11(5) in addition to the available remedial actions.

3. Each DSO and SGU identified pursuant to Article 11(4), as well as each defence service provider shall execute without undue delay the system defence plan instructions issued by the TSO pursuant to point (c) of Article 11(3), in accordance with the system defence plan procedures provided for in point (b) of Article 11(5).

4. Each TSO shall activate procedures of its system defence plan referred to in point (b) of Article 11(5) having a significant cross-border impact in coordination with the impacted TSOs.

Article 14 U.K. Inter-TSO assistance and coordination in emergency state

1. Upon request from a TSO in emergency state, each TSO shall provide through interconnectors any possible assistance to the requesting TSO, provided this does not cause its transmission system or the interconnected transmission systems to enter into emergency or blackout state.

2. When the assistance needs to be provided through direct current interconnectors, it may consist in carrying out the following actions, taking into account the technical characteristics and capability of HVDC system:

(a) manual regulation actions of the transmitted active power to help the TSO in emergency state to bring power flows within operational security limits or frequency of neighbouring synchronous area within system frequency limits for alert state defined pursuant to Article 18(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1485;

(b) automatic control functions of the transmitted active power based on the signals and criteria set out in Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1447;

(c) automatic frequency control pursuant to Articles 15 to 18 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1447 in case of islanded operation;

(d) voltage and reactive power control pursuant to Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1447, and

(e) any other appropriate action.

3. Each TSO may proceed to a manual disconnection of any transmission system element having a significant cross-border impact, including an interconnector, subject to the following requirements:

(a) the TSO shall coordinate with neighbouring TSOs; and

(b) this action shall not lead the remaining interconnected transmission system into emergency state or blackout state.

4. Notwithstanding paragraph 3, a TSO may manually disconnect any transmission system element having a significant cross-border impact, including an interconnector, without coordination, in exceptional circumstances implying a violation of the operational security limits, to prevent endangering personnel safety or damaging equipment. Within 30 days of the incident, the TSO shall prepare a report at least in English containing a detailed explanation of the rationale, implementation and impact of this action and submit it to the relevant regulatory authority in accordance with Article 37 of Directive 2009/72/EC and neighbouring TSOs, and make it available to the significantly affected system users.