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The NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) team proposes to build a consulting service that leverages the resources, products and talent to help our customers address information security and compliance issues. The NERC CIP team will use sound business and technical practices to enable our customers to meet regulatory requirements while focusing on making electric power safer, more reliable and more economical.
On January 17th, 2008, the NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection Standards became mandatory in the United States. At the same time information technology consulting firms across the country, recognizing a window of opportunity, announced NERC CIP compliance offerings. Many of these offerings are traditional information security audits dressed up as NERC CIP compliance efforts. The NERC CIP team has the capability to leverage our role as a supplier of products and services for the utility industry to allow us to focus on the needs of our customers. The NERC CIP team understand that FERC is a partner in our customer’s future, not just in search of additional revenue streams. Intimate working relationships with our customer enables to FERC delve deeper into the servicing the needs of our clients. FERC will be able to help the customer get more from what they currently have and communicate other needs and desires to the various departments within FERC for development into new products or incorporation into existing products. Future developments that when properly incorporated, can help drive down operations and maintenance costs. When the activity around NERC CIP compliance has subsided, the NERC CIP team will focus on providing solutions based upon other FERC products such as advanced metering, synchro-timer integration and automation. Our team of qualified information technology professionals has extensive experience in developing governance programs, compliance programs, integration and automation processes in the utility industry. Together with the engineering expertise, marketing resources and technical personnel at FERC, the NERC CIP team can provide consulting services that help our customers comply with the NERC CIP standards and other regulatory requirements in an effective manner. The NERC CIP team feels that there are many opportunities for synergy between our technology professionals and the talented employees of FERC, and look forward to the opportunity to make it happen. |