On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which authorizes the creation of an electric reliability organization (ERO) with the statutory authority to enforce compliance with reliability standards among all market participants. The North America Electric Reliability Council (NERC) is working closely with industry stakeholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and regulators in Canada to implement the provisions of the reliability legislation.
The electric industry is adjusting to the change of a voluntary system of compliance with reliability standards to a new mandatory system of reliability standards and compliance that would be backstopped in the United States by FERC. Many utilities in the Transmission & Distribution (T&D) fields have never been under this kind of scrutiny and have to adjust to this new regulated environment being imposed by FERC.
The current situation:
- There are some 107 standards proposed for FERC approval
- These Standards define over 850 enforceable requirements and measures
- Maximum fine of up to $1 million per day per violation
The current challenge:
- Establish a compliance system
- Understand the complexity of standards
- Perform auditably compliant gap analysis
- Address gaps (action plans)
- Keep up with new/revised standards
The Industry Solution from AssurX:
For over a decade, AssurX’s CATSWeb solution has been used in heavily regulated environments including utilities, life sciences and financial services. CATSWeb ER (Electric Reliability) is a turn-key solution specifically designed to manage NERC reliability compliance. The system comes loaded with currently approved NERC Standards and provides the ability to upload new and revised standards as they are released. This saves time and allows utilities to instantly sort requirements by measure, compliance level, risk factor and entity.
CATSWeb is a mature compliance management system with built-in audit trail and electronic signature functionality that meets the rigorous regulatory requirements established by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Proactive electric utilities are using the system to conduct gap analyses, develop and implement action plans to close identified gaps, and monitor progress and identify risks via the built-in executive dashboard. While larger utilities have installed the system on their own servers (on-premise) given the urgency around compliance, AssurX is also offering the solution on a subscription basis (on-demand) eliminating the need to procure hardware and perform installation tasks. The on-demand offering also provides an economical pay-as-you-go solution that can be brought in house at any time.
