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Green Hydrogen as Long-Duration Energy Storage
The Problem Renewables Haven't Solved Solar and wind now produce some of the cheapest electricity ever built — strictly on their own schedule. The grid's problem isn't clean energy; it's dispatchable clean energy — power that...
From the Industry – Grid Squeeze & Large Load Integration
By Sam Coffey, NERC Reliability Specialist FERC and ERCOT Are Getting Bold to Finally Fix the Grid Squeeze & FERC Launches Aggressive Targeted Action to Speed Large Load Integration Summary FERC has initiated a significant set of reforms addressing the rapidly growing large-load demand, particularly from data centers. The Commission issued tailored show-cause orders…
CISA’s AI Guidance to Power Plants
By Leonard Wills, NERC Reliability Specialist The power industry continues to deploy AI technologies to analyze operational data, identify equipment anomalies, improve predictive maintenance, and help operators make faster decisions. These capabilities offer operational benefits, but they also introduce AI-related risks that can adversely impact operational technology (OT) environments. CISA’s…
NERC Based Pre-Job Briefs
By Chuck Holm, NERC Reliabilty Specialist Pre-Job briefs are typically completed to ensure that the job scope is properly identified and that the safety aspects of the job are clearly identified and mitigated. Over time, facilities added environmental permit type pre-job discussion to address common issues such as proper hazard…
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 attributes of effective Standards, effects on competition, essential principles to follow, and processes to provide…
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 may be supported, reviewed, and evidenced. In comments to the Department of Energy, NERC stated…
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 large loads, from both a forecasting and operational perspective. Multiple assessment areas have revised load…
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 what cybersecurity means inside a power plant. For power generation facilities, cybersecurity is not just…
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 of OEM guidance, site experience, preventive maintenance templates, and accumulated CMMS entries. The 2023 edition…
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, behind-the-meter microgrids designed to support gigawatt-scale data center campuses without an external grid connection. At…
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 (EP), strengthening its position as a technical leader in vibration diagnostics and rotating equipment reliability. …
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 decisions. We can’t just start over. We’re working…
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…
