The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) acted on two important items related to reliability at its open meeting today.
FERC issued an order approving Reliability Standard CIP-008-6 – Cyber Security – Incident Reporting and Response Planning, noting that the approved standard enhances the security of the Bulk Electric System (BES). The approved standard expands mandatory reporting requirements to include Cyber Security Incidents that either compromise or attempt to compromise Electronic Security Perimeters and Electronic Access Control or Monitoring Systems associated with medium- and high-impact BES Cyber Systems. The revised standard also addresses the information to be included in Cyber Security Incident reports and any subsequent updates. Reports and updates will be sent to the Electricity Information and Sharing Analysis Center and the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center for United States entities. The broadened reporting requirements help to enhance awareness of existing and future cyber security threats or vulnerabilities.
FERC also issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) proposing to approve Reliability Standard TPL-001-5 – Transmission System Planning Performance Requirements. TPL-001-5 revises the current standard to address (1) reliability issues concerning the study of single points of failure of protection systems; and (2) directives from Order No. 786 regarding planned maintenance outages and stability analysis for spare equipment strategy. In addition, the NOPR proposes to direct NERC to develop and submit modifications to require corrective action plans for protection system single points of failure in combination with a three-phase fault if planning studies indicate potential cascading.
NERC staff appreciates FERC's action and will continue to work with FERC and stakeholders toward assuring the reliability of the North American bulk power system.
FERC Press Release
