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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 hundred years of engineering, policy, and market...
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 Review” shows that we have some work to do. The US was ranked 8th and…
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 — dictates that only the ports and services necessary for operations should be enabled. Everything…
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 half of the continent faces an elevated or high risk of electricity shortfalls over the…
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. It became effective July 1, 2014, following a FERC order issued in March 2014, and…
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. Global energy markets are closely connected, and international events can affect wholesale gas and electricity…
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 address new operational characteristics. In response, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has introduced…
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 not in unclear language, but in the technical discipline required where many sites still depend…
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 project lifecycle. Still, beneath these highly visible constraints, another shift is accelerating. It is not…
Protect Your Four: How Personal Values Drive Industrial Safety Excellence
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 programs have been “manual-driven”- thick binders of procedures that workers are expected to follow. However, David Jackson, VP of 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 single-digit temperatures of the Texas Panhandle, the NAES approach is defined by Safety and People-First, two of…
Independent Engineering: Turning Power Plant Plans into Bankable Projects
Most energy projects don’t stall because the design is flawed; they stall because lenders don’t have enough confidence in the risks, controls, and cash-flow stability. Developers and plant teams naturally lead with technical capability; the types of turbines, how it will be built, and why it will work. Lenders, meanwhile,…
EPCm Project Delivery: A Critical Solution for The Thermal Power Build-out in The AI Era
As the world races to expand firm, dispatchable thermal generation to meet the extraordinary electricity requirements of AI and data-center infrastructure, the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCm) model has become an attractive and necessary alternative to conventional EPC contracting. EPCm provides owners & developers with control over procurement, competitive…
Large Loads Looming Concern
by Leland McMillan, NERC Supervisor “Load” has emerged as a reliability impact lately, but not the load that you might be thinking of. Generation Load is often defined as electrical power that a generator can create. Transmission System Load is energy demand that moves on the transmission system and is…
AI in Power Plant Cybersecurity: What You Need to Know
by Eddie Aveitia, NERC CIP Reliability Specialist The Changing Threat Landscape Artificial intelligence is changing how both attackers and defenders approach cybersecurity at power generation facilities. You don’t need to be an IT expert to understand the basics—and understanding matters is important because these threats can directly impact plant operations,…
How Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) Impact the Electrical Grid
By Richard Schlottmann, NERC Project Manager Introduction Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are emerging as a pivotal technology in the evolution of the electrical grid, offering a blend of flexibility, reliability, and resilience that addresses many of the challenges facing modern power systems. As the energy sector accelerates its transition toward…
Section 1600 Reporting
By Stefano Schnitger, Senior NERC Reliability Specialist The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Section 1600 reporting framework authorizes targeted data requests from registered entities to support reliability oversight under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act. This framework ensures NERC and Regional Entities have accurate, timely data for reliability…
ERCOT’s 2026 Winter Outlook for Texas
By Mike Moyer, Power Market Compliance Services Specialist ERCOT stated that the Texas power grid is better equipped than in past years to deal with an extreme weather event. Changes have been made to the Texas power grid with legislation that was passed in 2021-2022, which now requires these plants…
2026 NERC CMEP: What GO/GOPs Should Prepare for This Coming Year
by Sean Thompson, NERC Supervisor Each year, the ERO Enterprise CMEP Implementation Plan signals the reliability, and compliance risks that Compliance Enforcement Authorities (CEAs) are most likely to probe. For Generator Owners (GOs) and Generator Operators (GOPs), the goal isn’t guessing what you’ll be audited on—it’s translating those themes into…
Data Center Construction Management
BREAKING THROUGH 2026’S POWER INFRASTRUCTURE BOTTLENECKS A View on 2026’s Power Challenges Data center developers are racing to support AI-driven growth, but a number of challenges persist. Grid constraints, long lead times for critical equipment, and a limited supply of large gas turbines are pushing many to explore unconventional solutions.…
Grid Reliability: What It Really Takes to Keep Power Moving
Keeping the grid stable isn’t just a technical goal — it’s what prevents small problems from turning into major outages. For power generators and utilities, reliability is the day-to-day discipline of keeping critical equipment online, operating within limits, and responding quickly when conditions change. Grid reliability protects more than uptime. It supports economic stability, public…
