By Timothy Perez, NERC Reliability Specialist Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the discovery of a room temperature superconductor. If such a material was discovered, this could have profound implications on the electric industry. First, to get a better understanding of this topic let’s talk about conductors.

by Troy Dahlgren, NERC Reliability Specialist The winter storm of December 2022, known as Winter Storm Elliott, wreaked havoc on the United States’ power grid, resulting in unprecedented electric generation outages, natural gas production declines, and significant challenges for both electric and gas utilities. In a joint staff inquiry, the

by Walt Bukowski, NERC Reliability Specialist The 2023 RISC Report has identified five significant risks that have evolved in the world today and identified in the 2023 ERO Reliability Risk Priorities Report. The following five risks are energy policy, grid transformation, resilience to extreme events, and critical infrastructure interdependencies. We

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful force in reshaping the landscape of IT security. As organizations increasingly rely on technology to drive their operations, cyber threats have grown in complexity and sophistication. In this article, we will explore how AI is impacting IT security, both in terms of

By Leland McMillan, NERC Supervisor The North American Generator Forum (NAGF) authored a Standard Authorization Request (SAR) in 2019 which ultimately resulted in the following industry need: The SAR proposes revisions to PRC-005-6 to provide clarity that the protective functions enabled within excitation systems (including analog/digital AVRs), and other control

By Laura Christensen, NERC Reliability Specialist Perhaps you’ve heard the news or maybe you’re hearing it for the first time now. Solar GADS opens soon with a 3-year implementation. In year 1 there will be voluntary reporting for Q3 and Q4 of 2023. In year 2 (2024), solar plants with

By Mike Moyer, Power Market Compliance Specialist Market Manipulation is the process of artificially inflating or deflating the price of a security.  In the case of the wholesale electric markets, market manipulation occurs when the system fails to deliver fair prices and equal competition.  The goal of a well-functioning market

By Joshua Brantley, NERC Reliability Specialist As renewable rights activists push for a cleaner green energy, animal rights activists push for an energy that will not cause harm to wildlife. Wind farms seemed to make everyone happy, initially, but then came the “issues”. Some don’t like the noise and others

by John Schmoker, NERC Compliance Testing Program Manager As many of you know, NAES NERC Services has been actively engaged in the Reliability Industry since NERC’s inception. Our growing team of nearly 30 reliability professionals keeping a vigilant watch over industry trends and best practices to ensure we provide the

By Trystan Schlottmann, NERC Reliability Analyst It goes without saying that the world of phishing is a rapidly evolving world full of skullduggery and manipulation. But as technology evolves, malicious individuals can utilize these developments to target and more effectively and efficiently attack individuals through vishing or other vectors of