FERC dealt another rejection to security activist Michael Mabee on Wednesday, denying his request for an investigation into the widespread power outages resulting from February’s cold snap despite intervenors supporting his contentions of lax regulatory oversight on the Texas power grid (EL21-54). Mabee filed his complaint on Feb. 28, not...

In a compliance filing last week, NERC sought to once again reassure FERC that the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) does not violate registered entities’ confidentiality when sharing information with the ERO Enterprise to assist in standards development (RR19-7). NERC also proposed changes to its Rules of Procedure...

FERC on Thursday approved a final rule ordering utilities to implement the latest version of the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) Standards for Business Practices and Communication Protocols for Public Utilities (RM05-5). Under the commission’s rulemaking, the timeline for implementation of version 003.3 of the standards — approved by...

The ransomware attack that crippled Colonial Pipeline’s network nearly two weeks ago was still fresh on the mind of FERC commissioners at their open meeting on Thursday, as they advocated various approaches to securing North America’s critical infrastructure in light of the latest reminder of its vulnerability. Colonial, which claims...

Extreme heat and drought conditions are once again a major cause for concern in the Western Interconnection, while the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive uncertainty across the North American electric grid, according to FERC’s 2021 Summer Energy Market and Reliability Assessment. In the report issued Thursday during the...

Wednesday’s hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy was nominally about the Department of Energy’s 2022 budget request for $46.2 billion. But the issue clearly top of mind for many representatives and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, the hearing’s sole witness, was the recent Colonial Pipeline cyberattack...

The San Francisco Bay Area energy system currently has 10,000 "control points," according to Martin Keller, laboratory director at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). But in the fast-approaching future of grid-interactive buildings — in which individual buildings will have multiple, programmable energy devices — that total...

In response to last week’s ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, President Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order aiming to improve cybersecurity preparedness in both the public and private sectors. The hack — which the FBI has attributed to the Eastern European criminal organization DarkSide — led Colonial to shut...

The ERO Enterprise has once again extended its pandemic-related regulatory relief measures initiated last year, this time through the end of 2021. However, in its announcement Monday NERC said that further extensions are unlikely "given anticipated developments in COVID-19 response throughout 2021." Originally intended to remain in place from May...

Cybersecurity experts say that last week’s ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, which led to the ongoing shutdown of the network that carries almost half the supply of gasoline, diesel and other fuel products to the U.S. East Coast, provides a graphic reminder of the rapidly evolving landscape of cyber threats...