Expanded Cybersecurity Focus

New Approach for Generators

WASHINGTON — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave preliminary approval Thursday to a rewrite of cybersecurity rules and set a “bright line” requiring most facilities at 100 kV or higher to abide by them.

The commission issued four orders approving proposals by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC). Included were:

• A new definition of transmission facilities covered by NERC reliability rules that upgrades the longstanding 100 kV threshold from a guideline to a directive. Regional discretion on the definition of Bulk Electric Systems (BES) is eliminated. (more)
• Version 5 Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards, which replace the current “in or out” designations with a tiered approach which classify assets as high, medium or low impact. The commission said version 5’s improvements were important enough that companies now operating under CIP version 3 will skip CIP Version 4, due to take effect date, April 1, 2014, and transition directly to version 5. (more)
• New rules for generator interconnections that will eliminate the need for most generators to register as transmission operators. (more)
• Criteria for determining which NERC activities are eligible for cost recovery. (more)