News & Analysis as of November 17, 2024

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

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North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is a non-profit entity that develops and enforces reliability standards to promote adequate and consistent bulk electrical power in North America. NERC enforces standards, monitors reliability, investigates disruptions and trains and certifies power industry personnel. less -

FERC Approves NERC’s CIP Reliability Standard on Cyber Security

Troutman Pepper on 6/10/2024

On May 23, 2024, FERC approved the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) proposed Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Reliability Standard, CIP-012-2 (Cyber Security – Communications between...more

FERC Staff Issues Report on Lessons Learned from 2023 CIP Audits

Troutman Pepper on 12/29/2023

On December 12, 2023, FERC staff offered information and recommendations to help registered entities (i.e., users, owners, and operators of the bulk electric system) improve their compliance with mandatory Critical...more

FERC Issues Final Rule Establishing Incentive Rate Treatment for Eligible Cybersecurity Investments

Troutman Pepper on 5/10/2023

Introduction - On April 21, pursuant to FPA Section 219A(c), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) established rules, providing incentive-based rate treatment for utilities making certain voluntary...more

FERC Approves Rate Incentives for Cybersecurity Investments

Morgan Lewis - Power & Pipes on 5/4/2023

FERC has issued its final rule paving the way for incentive-based rate treatment for electric utilities that make certain voluntary cybersecurity investments. As we first noted in 2020 when describing the proposed rule, the...more

FERC Approves Extending Risk Management Practices to Low-Impact Cyber Systems

Troutman Pepper on 4/11/2023

On March 16, 2023, FERC approved a new cybersecurity reliability standard, CIP-003-9 (along with associated violation risk factors and violation security levels), proposed by the North American Electric Reliability...more

FERC Approves New Cybersecurity Standards for Low-Impact Electric Assets

Holland & Knight LLP on 3/21/2023

At its open monthly meeting on March 16, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a new cybersecurity standard proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to address the supply...more

FERC Establishes New Monitoring Requirements for Bulk Electric Systems

Perkins Coie on 3/8/2023

In late January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) published a final rule directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop and submit modified reliability standards for internal...more

FERC Directs NERC to Study Bulk Electric System's Internal Cybersecurity Gaps

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 2/6/2023

Continuing a recent trend in which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") has been directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") to improve or maintain the reliability of the nation's...more

FERC Directs NERC to Develop Internal Network Security Monitoring for High and Medium Impact Bulk Electric System Cyber Systems

Troutman Pepper on 1/31/2023

On January 19, 2023, the Commission issued a final rule that directs the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to develop and submit reliability standards for monitoring high and medium impact bulk electric...more

FERC Directs NERC to Tighten Bulk Electric System Cybersecurity

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 1/26/2023

On January 19, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the “Commission”) issued a Final Rule directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to file for FERC review new or modified...more

Carrot or Stick? FERC Grapples With How to Incentivize Electric Utility Cybersecurity Investments

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 9/30/2022

The U.S. electric grid is a prime target for cyberattacks, including by both nation-state actors and organized crime. Electric utilities have been ahead of much of the rest of the energy sector in hardening their...more

FERC Again Proposes Incentives for Voluntary Cybersecurity Investments

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 9/27/2022

On September 22, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the “Commission”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) proposing revisions to its regulations to establish rate incentives for public utilities...more

FERC Proposes to Close Gap in Bulk Electric System Cybersecurity

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 2/3/2022

On January 20, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) proposed to direct the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop for FERC review and approval new or modified Reliability Standards...more

Cybersecurity 2022 – The Year in Preview: Continued Threats to Nation’s Energy Supply as Regulators Race to Keep Up

Foley Hoag LLP - Security, Privacy and the... on 2/2/2022

Continued Threats of Ransomware Attacks - As we reported in our 2021 Year in Preview series, we began 2021 anticipating that ransomware would be a serious threat to critical energy infrastructure. These concerns were...more

FERC Directs NERC to Expand Protections to Internal Networks

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 1/27/2022

On January 20, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop new or modified standards that...more

FERC Staff Provides “Lessons Learned” from Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standard Audits

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 11/5/2021

In October 2021, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff issued its annual report on “recommendations to help users, owners and operators of the bulk-power system improve their compliance with the [North American...more

TSA's Pipeline of Cybersecurity Requirements

Holland & Knight LLP on 8/13/2021

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on July 20, 2021, reversed two decades of pipeline cybersecurity policies. Having previously advocated for voluntary pipeline cybersecurity standards, the TSA quickly issued...more

FERC and NERC Publish Whitepaper on SolarWinds and Related Supply Chain Compromise

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 7/8/2021

On July 6, 2021, the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) issued a whitepaper...more

Ransomware, Cyberattacks, and Cybersecurity for Pipelines and LNG Facilities

Perkins Coie on 5/18/2021

Colonial Pipeline shut down 5,500 miles of its East Coast pipeline on May 7, 2021, in an effort to contain a security breach resulting from a ransomware attack. Colonial’s pipeline is one of the nation’s largest and carries...more

Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack Highlights Vulnerability of Nation’s Energy Sector

Foley Hoag LLP - Energy & Climate Counsel on 5/13/2021

This post is a follow up from our recent discussion of the cyberattack that took the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline offline last week and the growing threat ransomware poses to our nation’s energy system. On May 10, 2021, a...more

FERC Proposes Incentives for Adding Cyber Protections to Electric Grid

Morgan Lewis - Power & Pipes on 12/29/2020

At its December open meeting, FERC proposed to establish rules for incentive-based rate treatments for voluntary cybersecurity investments by a public utility. If approved, the regulations would provide incentives for...more

FERC Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Cybersecurity Investment Incentives

Troutman Pepper on 12/28/2020

On December 17, 2020, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to revise its regulations to establish incentives for public utilities to make certain cybersecurity investments that go beyond the current...more

FERC Proposes Incentive-Based Rate Treatment for Cybersecurity Investments

Bracewell LLP on 12/28/2020

On Thursday, December 17, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR” or “Proposed Rule”) seeking comment on proposals that would allow public utilities to make a...more

Responding to Cyber-Attacks in the Utility and Energy Sectors

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on 11/30/2020

To assist utilities with assessing and responding to cyber risks, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) recently issued a report on best practices to...more

FERC and NERC Staff Change Course on Disclosure of CIP Violators

Morgan Lewis - Power & Pipes on 10/1/2020

Following significant pushback from the regulated community, FERC and NERC Staff jointly announced in a new white paper that filings and other submissions to FERC describing violations of cybersecurity reliability standards...more

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