Happy Monday!  What a wild and woolly week it was last week.  We hosted our webinar last week on pending and proposed changes to the CIP-002 standard.  We had some technical confusion so not all that were interested were able to get into the session, but for all that registered you will get a link to the recorded session shortly.  (More on that in our next entry).  Nonetheless, what I wanted to capture is some of the highlights of the session.  Dave Norton, CIP standards drafting expert and front seat witness to all four versions of the standard, was put on the hot seat and did a pretty solid job of calling it as he sees it.  Most notable were the following:

• Changes to the application of assets to be considered critical using “‘bright lines” criteria (outlined in CIP-002 v4 Attachment 1)
• Proposed timeline for newly identified CAs to come into compliance
• Audience participation is required - please contribute to the review process and provide comments
• Emergence of a subcommittee tasked with developing CIP v5

And as Dave pointed out, this latest offer from the SDT is important in that it is a significant attempt to address the more difficult tasks outlined in Order 706.  Now we need to see if this new language actually meets with NERC (December) and FERC (Q1, 2011) approval.

NERC posted the proposed changes this morning and the window of September 20 to November 3 is now officially open for comment.  Check it out here if you wish.

That’s all for now.  Heading south tomorrow to Denver to see the Broncos and maybe take in some of the EnergySec summit.  Happy trails!