FERC Issues NOPR To Approve NERC’s Proposed CIP Version 5 Reliability Standards

On April 18, 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or "Commission") issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NOPR"), in Docket No. RM13-5-000, in which it proposed to approve the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's ("NERC's") proposed Critical Infrastructure Protection ("CIP") Standards, CIP-002-5 through CIP-011-1, submitted by NERC for Commission approval on January 31, 2013 ("NERC's Petition"). The Commission noted that NERC's proposed Version 5 CIP Standards "represent an improvement over the current Commission-approved CIP Reliability Standards as they adopt new cyber security controls and extend the scope of the systems that are protected by the CIP Reliability Standards."