From: ECT.coop
By Cathy Cash
Electric cooperatives facing various levels of national cyber security now have an extra six months to meet new standards, under a deadline extension granted by federal regulators.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has a new compliance date of Oct. 1, 2014, for North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Version 4.
The original deadline for compliance was April 1, 2014.
NRECA asked the commission earlier this summer to approve Version 5 of these standards and allow co-ops to avoid having to quickly first meet Version 4.
Attaining various versions of the standards requires significant planning, budgeting and resources.
“While this extension for CIP V4 provides some additional breathing room, it is important to understand that this has no impact on FERC’s future action on CIP V5,” said Barry Lawson, NRECA associate director, power delivery and reliability.
“NRECA is hopeful that FERC will issue a final rule approving CIP V5 in the next few months that will allow CIP V4 to be skipped. Until such a final rule or other FERC order is issued, cooperatives should understand that compliance with CIP V4 will be required as of Oct. 1, 2014,” Lawson said.
With other trade associations, NRECA filed a motion on July 18, requesting that the commission delay the compliance deadline for Version 4.
FERC in its Aug. 12 order said a six-month extension was warranted to allow those that must comply “to more efficiently utilize resources to transition” from Version 3 to Version 5 if the commission ultimately agrees to override Version 4.
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