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FINDING THE ECONOMIC OPTIMUM IN POWER PLANT O&M
WHY THE LOWEST O&M BUDGET IS RARELY THE MOST PROFITABLE By: Robert Wolfe, Director of Asset Optimization, NAES Executive Summary. O&M budgets should be evaluated by the operating margin they enable, not by cost adherence alone. The optimal investment level...
How Will the Modernization of Standards Processes and Procedures Affect Standards Development?
By Carl Curry, Senior NERC Reliability Specialist NERC uses the Rules of Procedures to determine the process to develop new or revised Reliability Standards. The Rules of Procedure give guidance on Standard development related to...
Integrating AI into Compliance Programs: Review Discipline, Gap Identification, and Audit-Ready Evidence
By Richard Schlottmann, Project Manager, NERC Services Artificial intelligence is becoming more relevant to electric sector compliance programs, not because it changes the basic obligations of registered entities, but because it changes how those obligations...
2026 Summer Reliability Assessment
By John Schmoker, Compliance Testing Services Project Manager HIGHLIGHTS “The 2026 Summer risk profile is marked by rising demand, significant generation growth in many areas, the prospect of challenging hydrological conditions, and the unpredictability of...
Power Plant Cybersecurity Is a Physical Reliability Issue
When people hear the word cybersecurity, they often picture stolen data, hacked emails, or someone in a dark room trying to break into a network. Those risks are real, but they do not fully explain...
NFPA 70B IS NOW A STANDARD. ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS NEED TO CATCH UP
By Jim Forehand, CMRP Director – Risk and Reliability For years, I watched facilities treat electrical equipment maintenance as a recommended best practice. It was important work, but it was often managed through a patchwork...
FIVE NINES WITHOUT A GRID: RETHINKING MICROGRID TESTING FOR GW-SCALE DATA CENTERS
The next generation of hyperscale data centers is challenging one of the industry’s long-standing assumptions: that the electric grid is the foundation of reliability. In its place, a new operating model is emerging: fully islanded,...
NAES Acquires Industrial Machinery Diagnostics (iMD) Turbine Vibration Subject Matter Experts
ISSAQUAH, Washington (May 4, 2026) - NAES Corporation (“NAES”) announced it has agreed to bring aboard turbine vibration matter experts from Industrial Machinery Diagnostics (iMD) LLC, a premier provider of vibration diagnostics and fault-finding services for rotating equipment. The transaction expands the capabilities of NAES Engineered Performance...
Operating the Energy Transition: Gas, Coal, Renewables, and Nuclear All Have a Job to Do
Listen to most public conversations about the energy transition, and you hear a simple question: which technology should win—gas, coal, renewables, or nuclear? The grid we rely on today was built over more than a...
World Rankings on Reliability
by Leland McMillan, NERC Supervisor Electric reliability is obviously a huge focus for our industry, but how does the US stack up against other grids? The statistics are in and this article from “World Population...
