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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...
The Hidden Risk of Open and Unused Ports on BES Cyber Systems
By Eddie Aveitia, NERC CIP Reliability Specialist Every open port on a BES Cyber System is a potential entry point for a threat actor. Best practice — and a foundational principle of industrial cyber security...
The Accelerating Reliability Crisis
By William White, Sr NERC Reliability Specialist The North American power industry is currently grappling with what the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) describes as an accelerating “reliability crisis.” For the first time in decades, nearly...
MOD-026-1 vs. MOD-026-2: A Clearer, Broader Standard—and the Retirement of MOD-027-1
By Shaun Rohret, Senior NERC Reliability Specialist For over ten years, NERC MOD-026-1 was the main reliability standard used to verify that generator excitation and Volt/Var control dynamic models in planning studies matched actual performance....
What the Situation in the Middle East Means for Our Energy and Generation
By Walt Bukowski, NERC Reliability Specialist We know the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is concerning. Our thoughts are that this will impact generation and natural gas availability due to the price of power....
A New Era of Inverter-Based Resource Compliance:Understanding NERC PRC-028, PRC-029, and PRC-030
By Troy Dahlgren, NERC Reliability Specialist The electric grid is undergoing a fundamental transformation. As inverter-based resources (IBRs) including solar, wind, and battery storage continue to replace conventional synchronous generation, reliability frameworks must evolve to...
CIP-003-9 Is Not Just a Compliance Update. It Is a Visibility Problem
Many power producers view CIP-003-9 primarily as a compliance deadline. That perspective is too limited. In practice, CIP-003-9 compels plants to assess whether they truly understand and can control their OT environment. The challenge lies...
The Labor Shift in Power Generation: Are You Prepared?
Over the past several years, developers and asset owners have navigated evolving grid reliability standards, and unprecedented equipment lead times. These pressures have altered capital planning conversations and forced organizations to reevaluate risk across the...
Protect Your Four: How Personal Values Drive Industrial Safety ExcellenceÂ
In the world of energy production, safety is often discussed in terms of “lost-time injuries,” “OSHA compliance,” and “Total Recordable Incident Rates.” While these metrics matter, they rarely resonate with the technician on the frontline. Traditionally, safety...
The Grit Behind the Grid: How NAES Sites Defied a Historic Winter
By: Emily Adelman, Corporate Communications Specialist When the forecast turns towards extreme cold and record-breaking snowfall, NAES teams across the country shift into a high-gear culture of preparedness. From the Arctic blasts of New England to the...
