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
Following its December 17 open meeting, FERC issued an order withdrawing and terminating a proceeding that had been opened earlier this year to examine oil pipeline affiliate contracts. FERC initiated that proceeding on...more
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released the Hydrogen Program Plan, a strategic framework that intends to “accelerate research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of hydrogen and related technologies in the United...more
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
Under Order No. 2222, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hopes to “usher in the electric grid of the future” by opening wholesale markets to distributed energy resource aggregations. ...more
FERC has issued a final rule, Order No. 872, revising the Commission’s regulations governing qualifying small power producers and co-generators (collectively, qualifying facilities or QFs) under the Public Utility Regulatory...more
The latest action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismisses an advocacy group’s request that FERC assert jurisdiction over net-metering transactions on procedural grounds, leaving important legal and...more
On July 10, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was well within its rights to prevent states from prohibiting energy storage resources from participating in wholesale...more
At its June 18 open meeting, FERC issued a notice of inquiry seeking public input on cybersecurity-related enhancements to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards. In light of the constantly...more
FERC issued a proposal on May 21 to modify its policy regarding requests for waiver of public utility tariff provisions that are subject to FERC’s review and approval under the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act....more
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 declaring that the use of bulk-power system equipment supplied by companies controlled by certain foreign nations poses an extraordinary threat to the US power grid....more
A nonprofit advocacy group recently asked FERC to overturn a policy that has been in effect for more than a decade and assert jurisdiction over energy sales from rooftop solar facilities and other distributed generation...more
In an order issued on April 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to defer implementation of certain cybersecurity and operational reliability standards administered by the North American Electric...more
The US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued Version 3.0 of its guidance on April 17 on identifying essential critical infrastructure workers amid the coronavirus...more
FERC and NERC issued a joint notice on Wednesday providing compliance flexibility on certain key reliability standard requirements during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. ...more
FERC and NERC issued a joint notice on Wednesday providing compliance flexibility on certain key reliability standard requirements during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic....more
Following the increased spread of COVID-19 within the United States, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued a Level 2 Alert on March 10 to all users, owners, and operators of the bulk-power system,...more
3/13/2020
/ Business Continuity Plans ,
Business Travel ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Electricity ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Emergency Response ,
Infectious Diseases ,
NERC ,
Operation & Maintenance ,
Public Health ,
Reliability Standards ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Stress Tests ,
Supply Chain ,
Telecommuting ,
Workplace Safety
A cyberattack on a single gas compression facility resulted in the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline for two days, according to a recent alert from the US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure...more
2/26/2020
/ Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Emergency Response ,
Hackers ,
Information Technology ,
National Security ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Risk Management ,
Supply Chain ,
Threat Management
Autonomous cars, sports betting, and CBD products have burst onto the scene, setting the stage for major developments in how companies do business and how regulators monitor new innovations....more
2/10/2020
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appropriations Bill ,
Automotive Industry ,
Big Data ,
Bioengineering ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Final Rules ,
FIRRMA ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Food Labeling ,
Food Safety ,
Food Supply ,
Foreign Investment ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Medicaid ,
Medical Foods ,
National Security ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Plant Based Products ,
Recreational Use ,
Retail Market ,
Sports Betting ,
Sports Gambling ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
Taxation ,
USDA
Annual deployments of energy storage resources in the United States have increased nearly tenfold since 2014, from only 62 MW in 2014 to nearly 500 MW expected for 2019. The big question is whether the nascent energy storage...more
At its open meeting on November 21, FERC announced organizational changes to enhance the agency’s focus on cybersecurity threats and challenges to electric infrastructure. Commission staff unveiled five “focus areas” related...more
FERC recently issued a pair of orders approving the electric storage market participation proposals of PJM Interconnection, Inc. (PJM) and Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP). PJM and SPP submitted those proposals to comply with...more
FERC Staff issued an October 4 report on Commission-led critical infrastructure protection (CIP) reliability audits completed during fiscal year 2019. The report provides lessons learned and identifies voluntary practices...more
FERC recently approved proposed Reliability Standard CIP-008-6, which expands the mandatory reporting requirements for Cyber Security Incidents that attempt to compromise the operation of the bulk power system. Under the new...more
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (Con Edison) and Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) issued a draft joint Request for Proposals (RFP) on May 31 to competitively procure scheduling and dispatch rights from...more