Last week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released a revised draft of the proposed procedures that Responsible Entities would use to request a Technical Feasibility Exception (TFE) for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards. The revised procedures make several significant revisions to the draft TFE procedures released for comment this spring.
Under the revised TFE procedures, the responsibility for reviewing and approving TFE requests has been shifted back to the Regional Entities. Any Responsible Entity seeking a TFE must submit an electronic form to the appropriate Regional Entity containing the basic information regarding the TFE, including the relevant CIP Reliability Standard Requirement eligible for a TFE, the basis and justification for the request, the proposed mitigating measures, and the schedule for achieving Strict Compliance. The templates on which Responsible Entities will submit this information should be available from the Regional Entities beginning on September 17, 2009. Read more…