The Texas Reliability Entity’s Board of Directors has unanimously endorsed the ERO Enterprise’s long-term strategic plan that will guide NERC and its regional entities in their collective priorities and activities. 

The strategic plan identifies focus areas to help guide the ERO Enterprise over a longer-term planning horizon and annual work plan priorities that identify performance goals and key accomplishments. It has not been updated since it was created in 2019. NERC hopes to present it to its Board of Trustees in October for approval. 

“[NERC is] looking for each region to indicate their support for this approach, so that all six regions have expressed this is a framework that we can collectively operate under,” Texas RE COO Joseph Younger said during the board’s Sept. 18 meeting. He said at least three other REs have endorsed the plan. 

The plan’s four focus areas are: 

• • using data, tools and approaches to help stakeholders and policymakers address existing risks to the bulk power system and proactively identifying and preparing for emerging and unknown risks. 

• • maintaining cyber and physical security programs that are risk-based, efficient and coordinated and that effectively advance the industry’s security posture. 

• • ensuring that stakeholders and policymakers find value in engagements with the ERO Enterprise and seek its expertise. 

• • performing as an effective and efficient team acting in coordination and ensuring its programs and efforts deliver value for stakeholders and policymakers. 

“It’s a broad umbrella. Honestly, things are changing all the time, but those four categories kind of encompass … all the things that we’re working on,” Younger said. “We hope that it can stand the test of time for a few years.” 

In other actions, the board’s Nominating Committee said it has nominated Milton Lee for a third and final three-year term, effective Jan. 1, 2025. 

“I’m getting so old I wonder if I can actually get up in the morning,” Lee said. “I didn’t think I would make it this far, but I plan to be here for the next three years.” 

Texas RE staff said it had 630 registrants and 495 attendees for its Cyber and Physical Security Workshop, held Aug. 28 in San Antonio. Panels focused on critical infrastructure, threat assessments, current and future grid technologies, and security posture.