ERCOT may need to use Energy Emergency Alerts (EEAs) to provide "operational flexibility" and ensure it has sufficient resources to mitigate capacity shortages this summer, according to FERC’s 2020 Summer Energy Market and Reliability Assessment. The report released Thursday found that aside from ERCOT, all NERC planning regions should have...

Despite the growing threat of cyberattacks, utilities in many countries lack consistent regulatory frameworks for hardening their systems against malicious actors, according to a new report from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The groups produced Evaluating the Prudency of Cybersecurity Investments:...

The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to make part of the 900-MHz spectrum available for companies in the utility, transportation, manufacturing and petrochemical sectors to develop "critical wireless broadband technologies and services." The 900-MHz band is currently reserved for narrowband land mobile radio communications by those industries. According to a...

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, NERC, FERC, the Department of Energy and the North American Transmission Forum (NATF) have created a resource to help entities develop response plans for pandemics and epidemics. The Epidemic/Pandemic Response Plan Resource, released this week, is intended to "help utilities create, update or formalize"...

FERC last week approved penalty settlements for violations of NERC standards by Mississippi Delta Energy Agency (MDEA) and the Western Area Power Administration’s Rocky Mountain Region, along with an unnamed utility in the Eastern Interconnection. The violations carry penalties of $70,000 and $225,000 for MDEA and the unnamed entity, respectively.

President Trump last week declared a national emergency regarding foreign threats to the bulk power system, issuing new restrictions on the purchase of BPS equipment by federal agencies, citizens and companies from suppliers suspected of connections with foreign adversaries. President Donald Trump | © ERO Insider In an executive order...

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped shine an unexpected spotlight on the need for cybersecurity best practices, but maintaining that awareness once the crisis has passed could be a challenge, according to members of the government-sponsored Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Richard Mroz, Protect Our Power | © ERO Insider Speaking to state...

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has provided a list of guidelines for safely operating control centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Operations Centers and Control Rooms Guide for Pandemic Response applies to "operations centers and control rooms across the 16 critical infrastructure sectors required...

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday agreed to open a portion of the 6-GHz band for unlicensed use over the objections of utilities, which fear their communications in the spectrum could be disrupted. The FCC said its ruling "will usher in Wi-Fi 6, the next generation of Wi-Fi, and play...

By Holden Mann FERC has agreed to defer the implementation of seven reliability standards scheduled to take effect this year (RM15-4, et al.), which NERC requested earlier this month "as a measure to help ensure grid reliability amid the impacts [of] the coronavirus outbreak." (See NERC Requests FERC Defer Standards...