Posts from — January 2011

On January 24, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued an order (“January 24 Order”) denying requests for rehearing of their December 17, 2009 order (“December 17 Order”) which authorized the Secretary of the Commission (“Secretary”) to issue a document entitled Staff’s Preliminary Notice of Violations.  [Read more →]

On January 12, 2011, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) released a report entitled “Electricity Grid Modernization: Progress Being Made on Cybersecurity Guidelines, but Key Challenges Remain to be Addressed” (the “Report”).  This Report highlighted key issues which could cause concern for the smart grid system and identified regulatory problems affecting smart grid cybersecurity standards. [Read more →]

On January 11, 2011, the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Existing Plant Program and Sequestration program at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (“NETL”) released their December 2010 Carbon Dioxide Capture (“CCS”) and Storage RD&D (research, development, and demonstration) Roadmap (the “roadmap”).  The roadmap outlined the DOE’s efforts to advance CCS technology. [Read more →]

On January 18, 2011, over $9 million worth of carbon emission permits were reported stolen from the Czech Republic’s electricity and carbon trading registry.  Additionally, at the same time of the heist, the registry office was evacuated because of a bomb threat.  This cyber theft is the latest in a series of security breaches within the carbon emissions market.  [Read more →]

On January 20, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) posted a report  by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (“LBNL”) called “Use of Frequency Response Metric to Assess the Planning and Operating Requirements for Reliable Integration of Variable Renewable Generation” along with its five supplementary papers (together, the “Report”).  [Read more →]