The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) announced Monday that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that creates a framework for ongoing collaboration and facilitates the exchange of experiences, information and selected data. The partnership will improve coordination of activities related to the reliability, resilience and safety of the North American large-scale power system.
The MoU is intended to improve the reliability of large power grids, enable more effective responses to new challenges and opportunities, and thus advance the shared goal of a robust and secure North American power grid.
“We look forward to enhancing our collaboration with electrical manufacturers through our partnership with NEMA,” said Jim Robb, president and CEO of NERC, in a media release. “As the power grid is transformed, new and different requirements will be placed on the equipment that supports grid operations. This MOU provides a framework for early collaboration that will prove critical to the reliability of the bulk power system.”
As an Electric Reliability Organization, NERC strives to effectively and efficiently reduce risks to the reliability and safety of the electric grid. NEMA, a standards development organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), represents a broad range of stakeholders involved in electrical product innovations and technologies.
“I am delighted to partner with NERC on this important collaboration that reflects the electric industry’s growing focus on grid reliability and resilience,” said Debra Phillips, President and CEO of NEMA. “As we scale production and capacity to meet Americans’ increasing energy needs, electric manufacturers need consistency and predictability to deliver key technologies and products that modernize grid infrastructure and accelerate the energy transition.”
Phillips added that exploring opportunities to align standards and activities through coordination with NERC creates a powerful partnership as manufacturers work to deliver a connected, electrified power grid of the future.
Last week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) unveiled a new technology developed by Sandia National Laboratories. The solution, called SolarSnitch, is designed to improve cybersecurity by protecting communications within photovoltaic (PV) systems in distributed energy resources (DER) at the edge of the grid. It uses inspection tools to analyze cyber and physical data in smart PV inverters and custom machine learning (ML) algorithms to detect potential cyberattacks.
