FERC approves extension of the CIP-013 compliance date

If you’re looking for today’s pandemic post, go to my new blog. If you’re looking for my cyber/NERC CIP posts, you’re come to the right place.

Today, FERC approved NERC’s petition to push back to October 1 the compliance date for CIP-013-1, CIP-005-6 and CIP-010-3, as well as four of the O&P standards until January 1, 2021. FERC stated in their Order:

  

“We grant NERC’s motion and defer the implementation of Reliability Standards CIP-005-6, CIP-010-3, and CIP-013-1 by three months, and the implementation of Reliability Standards PER-006-1, PRC-002-2, PRC-025-2, and PRC-027-1 by six months. We are persuaded by NERC’s statement that granting this motion will allow registered entities to focus their immediate efforts and resources on maintaining safety and ensuring the reliability of the grid. Accordingly, we find that the deferred implementation dates constitute a reasonable and proportionate response to the substantial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on registered entities without unduly delaying the implementation of these Reliability Standards.

“The Reliability Standards that are the subject of this order are important for ensuring the security and reliability of the grid. We recognize that registered entities have likely already taken significant steps to ensure the effective and timely implementation of these Reliability Standards, and we encourage them to continue doing so. Nevertheless, it is now necessary to balance the important role these NERC Reliability Standards play in protecting the reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System with the need for registered entities to respond to the immediate challenges of COVID-19. Therefore, we expect entities to continue their work in implementing the standards and to take advantage of the additional time to ensure they are fully compliant with these Reliability Standards when they become enforceable.”

On one odd note, they wrote “Michael Mabee (Mabee) filed an out-of-time protest, asserting that a pandemic was not unexpected and “the industry should have been prepared.” I assume he did that to show he has a sense of humor.

Any opinions expressed in this blog post are strictly mine and are not necessarily shared by any of the clients of Tom Alrich LLC. If you would like to comment on what you have read here, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at tom@tomalrich.com. Are you working on your CIP-013 plan and you would like some help on it? Or would you like me to review what you’ve written so far and let you know what could be improved? Just drop me an email!