Maintaining NERC CIP Compliance in Your Control Center

Maintaining NERC CIP Compliance in Your Control Center

Doomsday scenarios and wide-scale blackouts are often depicted in the media and tossed around hypothetically. Yet, as many in the utilities and critical infrastructure industry know, there has been an alarming rise of attempted cyberattacks in recent years on these complex systems and grids that entire cities, nations and economies rely on.

Enter the U.S. government’s creation of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a framework designed to strengthen cyber resilience at critical operation centers by putting in place regulations to protect the Bulk Electric System (BES) of North America. Born out of this initiative was the critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standard, which became a mandate for utilities seeking to protect their control centers to follow guidelines and devise specific network security protection measures.

Owners, operators and users on the bulk power system are required to comply with an ever-evolving list of security standards. So, when technology integrators are contracted to deploy solutions within these control centers, it’s imperative that they play a proactive role in maintaining NERC CIP compliance.

Understanding Critical Energy Infrastructure

Before even starting on the path of preparing and coordinating for NERC CIP, it’s just as vital for integrators to fully grasp how these companies operate and maintain the BES —particularly if you’re planning on contributing to the greater control room design and configuration. The majority of these entities monitor the power grid and dispatch when a problem is diagnosed within their perimeter. But, the different system processes, software and platforms can take on a variety of arrangements when it comes to day-to-day monitoring, forecasting and control; some are on a smart-grid and highly centralized, while others may rely on interfaces that are more fragmented.

Whether it’s energy management, outage management, customer and delivery tracking, synchrophasor measurements, system model validation, wide-area visualization or numerous others, it’s mission-critical to ensure that all connected components and applications of the control room function both securely and precisely as grid operators need them to.

Elements of NERC CIP

On its surface, the fundamentals of NERC CIP are straightforward:

• Identify and monitor critical assets
• Train users and prepare management
• Perform risk assessments
• Establish an electronic security perimeter
• Enforce physical security protocols
• Restrict access to devices
• Stay abreast of the latest cybersecurity practices

It all really boils down to physical and network security measures—or the people and the technology. As mentioned, under NERC CIP, utility companies operating on the BES are required to identify and categorize critical assets in the control room. Why? To regularly perform a risk analysis of those assets, implement cyber-monitoring tools and reduce network vulnerabilities in general. Makes sense, but the policies for governing modifications and access to those assets change frequently and can be complicated to comply with.

The purpose of CIP deals with laying the groundwork so that operation centers are prepared to deal with potential threats and keep the national and regional critical infrastructure as secure as possible. That said, is the onus of keeping up with new policy amendments and ensuring compliance solely on the utility companies?

Working Together

The short answer is no. The longer answer? Still no, and in fact, the longevity of control room systems depends on technology integrators having full comprehension of NERC CIP standards.

From the supply chain to system testing to installation and configuration, technology providers have to be vetted by end-users to make sure that they are compliant with all CIP requirements. Therefore, control room technology and systems integrators must be willing to go through the necessary training, pass evaluations and provide clear documentation that all personnel and equipment deemed as “critical assets” will always be fully compliant and air-gapped if necessary, whether that’s a video wall, large-format display, audio system, touch panel or data distribution and processing solution.

The value of that relationship goes further than simply following regulations; it’s a mutual understanding that NERC CIP compliance means something specific to their unique solution and their operation center design. Taking the time and effort to gain a deep knowledge of the technical and people-centered requirements—along with following security protocols employed to protect data—demonstrates that security and system integrity is a priority and not just a hoop to jump through.

Meeting Cloud Adoption with Compliance

Trusting any technology service provider in the context of energy control centers ought to involve scrutiny around data protection, especially with the evolving landscape of cloud adoption and security. As of January 1, 2024, significant updates to NERC CIP standards now allow the storage of medium to high-impact Bulk Cyber System Information (BCSI) in the cloud, along with stringent requirements.

Leaders in the power and utilities sector have the future-proofing potential to leverage cloud-based technologies and platforms to enhance operational efficiency, promote sustainability, and ensure grid reliability through digitization. Yet, this brings a new slate of security challenges that introduce the need for robust encryption, access controls, and continuous cyberthreat monitoring to comply with NERC CIP standards.

Evaluating cloud service providers for compliance, ensuring data residency and sovereignty, and mitigating third-party risks is crucial. In the same light, a trusted systems integrator should have expertise on adhering to compliance-focused criteria and sustaining system reliability for the control center environment and enterprise-wide support.

Navigating the Future of Security & Control

Needless to say, as the energy sector evolves, proactive engagement with NERC CIP standards and collaboration among industry stakeholders and technology providers will be vital in shaping a resilient and interconnected future.

The first set of CIP standards and regulations was established in 2008 as a direct and organized response to the infamous Northeast black out of 2003. Research shows that since then, data and network protection measures continue to improve in tandem with the advancement of cyber threats. And as less people are needed in the control center with big data aggregation and artificial intelligence (AI) taking hold, it will only become more crucial to establish up-to-date cyber defenses and recognize what NERC CIP really means to a utility’s control center.

People and organizations around the world rely on CTI to implement and manage their mission-critical technology ecosystems. Our command and control center integration specialists like to say that we speak CIP. We understand what it takes to design and securely integrate technology as operations become more and more agile, and we have the expertise to keep users in compliance.

Get in touch with one of our specialists at CTI today.