Spotlight Articles

Today's LiveWire Spotlight discusses a cyber security controversy touched off by the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) report on the vulnerability of the BPS to cyber-attacks as requested by four…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC’s 2019 Situational Awareness Conference held in Little Rock last September to address the role of SCADA and Energy Management Systems (EMS) in BES reliability.…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight evaluates the latest cyber security vulnerability summaries posted by the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).   Four advisories are reviewed in detail concerning defects that…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight explores the first functional release of Align, the unified ERO Enterprise Compliance and Enforcement platform, which will replace regional-specific products, tools, and file transfers. Although there has been…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines newly approved Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee (CIPC) guidance materials addressing five specific supply chain topics.  A non-binding guideline and training package is provided on each topic;…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the Grid Transformation Workshop, an advanced technology review jointly sponsored by NERC, the North American Generator Forum (NAGF) and the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG).  The…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the SAR for Project 2019-06, which looks to execute the recommendations from the joint NERC/FERC investigation into the January 2018 extreme weather event in the south-central…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines the latest annual Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program (CMEP) operating plan issued by NERC and the Regional Entities.  A new format has been introduced that consolidates the…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight assesses the latest annual analysis conducted by the ERO Enterprise on the use of Technical Feasibility Exceptions (TFEs) and their effect on BES reliability.  The number of entities with…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the second version of PRC-024-3, the modified NERC standard governing generator frequency and voltage protection settings, and the way they react to transients during a…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines three NERC Lessons Learned where human errors made during planned work activities threatened electric system reliability. One such error triggered a Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) by…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at NERC's second quarter Compliance and Enforcement Status Report - which provides statistics and ancillary information used to analyze the ERO Enterprise's performance during the months…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines a proposed Compliance Implementation Guideline which provides examples of acceptable Control Center data redundancy and diversity implementations to Operating Entities attempting to comply with TOP-001-4 and…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the Standards Authorization Request (SAR) for Project 2019-04 - which launches an initiative to clarify the applicability of PRC-005-6 to the Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) protective functions…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight evaluates the latest ERO Reliability Risk Priorities Report.  2019 marks a major transition in the annual study performed by the Reliability Issues Steering Committee (RISC) evaluating the top reliability…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines the ERO’s Revised Long-Term Strategy Document used by NERC and the Regions to identify and address threats to the BPS.  Two driving factors are cited: Significant…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at a white paper jointly authored by NERC and FERC staff proposing modifications to the public disclosure rules related to Notices of Penalty for violations of…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight examines a mandatory data request authorized by NERC’s Board of Trustees (BOT) after reviewing a staff report addressing the effectiveness of the three supply chain standards.  It  consists…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight looks at the near term (Phase 1) objectives of NERC’s Task Force assigned to assess BPS vulnerabilities to EMP and identify areas for improvement.  The EMP Task…

Today's LiveWire Spotlight addresses a recently released NERC Reliability Assessment that examines past oscillation events from the Eastern, Western, and Texas Interconnections to better understand the causes and forcing mechanisms.  The…