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NERC has extended voting on Project 2015-09 (Establish and Communicate System Operating Limits) to 8 p.m. ET Aug. 26 because six nonbinding polls failed to reach a quorum. The original deadline was Aug. 3. The standard drafting team on the project met Thursday to review comments received to date. Among...

Balloting on the second draft of NERC’s proposed Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards on cloud computing will be held from Sept. 11 to 21. The commenting period on CIP-004-7 and CIP-011-3 (Project 2019-02), which also ends on Sept. 21, began Aug. 6. On Wednesday, the standard drafting team (SDT) held...

Stakeholder comments on FERC’s proposals for encouraging cybersecurity investments by utilities reveal widespread misgivings about the commission’s planned framework, even as most respondents acknowledged the need for action on protecting the grid from cyber threats (AD20-19). FERC solicited comments in June on a white paper calling for an incentive framework...

NERC has posted its draft 2021-2023 Reliability Standards Development Plan (RSDP) for an informal comment period ending Sept. 9. The organization will consider stakeholders’ comments when drafting the final version of the RSDP to be presented at next month’s Standards Committee meeting. The RSDP must be presented every year to...

Utilities looking to fortify their systems against cyberattacks must consider NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards a starting point to be supplemented by additional security measures, according to a cybersecurity expert focused on the energy sector. In a webinar hosted by EnergyCentral on Wednesday, Richard Brooks, CEO of Reliable Energy...

NERC opened 45-day comment periods last week for proposed reliability guidelines on winter weather readiness and supply chain procurement, as well as on planned changes to its Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards. RSTC leadership at the committee's last in-person meeting in March. Left to right: Secretary Stephen Crutchfield; Chair Greg...

FERC and NERC have published a joint white paper sharing techniques that utilities can use to identify the manufacturers of equipment used in their computer networks, a response to concerns that systems could be vulnerable to cyberattacks by foreign intelligence services. The paper focused on network interface controllers (NICs), components...

FERC has accepted settlements totaling $175,000 between SERC and Ameren, along with Ameren Missouri, for violations of NERC’s FAC-009-1 and FAC-008-3 reliability standards for establishing and communicating facility ratings (NP20-19). SERC reported the settlements in a spreadsheet Notice of Penalty on June 30. The commission indicated in a notice on...

PJM’s consumer advocates on Thursday proposed changing the venue for discussions on NERC’s reliability standard on critical transmission facilities, saying the current process is moving too slowly. Greg Poulos, executive director of the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States (CAPS), told the Markets and Reliability Committee that his organization will...

Government efforts to ensure the security of the bulk power system run the risk of hampering utilities’ ability to operate effectively, industry representatives warned at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Summer Policy Summit on Tuesday. "I think it would be one thing if we get a blacklist. ‘Here...