The Operational Analysis & Awareness (OAA) department focuses on three areas:
analyzing Bulk Electric System (BES) events and disturbances,
monitoring the BES for situational awareness, and
identifying and categorizing threats and vulnerabilities posing risk to the BES.
By coordinating and correlating information gained from these three related areas of focus, ReliabilityFirst can identify emerging threats and trends and analyze the potential impacts to reliable operation of the BES.
Event Analysis
The Event Analysis program promotes a structured, collaborative approach to identify root and contributing causes of an event and any lessons learned. We work with our entities to analyze events and share lessons learned with others. If you have any questions related to Event Analysis, please visit our Contact Us page and direct your question to the Operational Analysis & Awareness group. To submit a Disturbance Report, please send it to disturbance@rfirst.org.
Situational Awareness/Threats and Vulnerabilities
Situational Awareness involves monitoring BES conditions to identify situations where the electric grid is operating outside normal operating parameters. It also involves monitoring information from NERC, the E-ISAC, DHS, and other sources for emerging threats and vulnerabilities related to cyber or physical security. ReliabilityFirst encourages entity participation in the E-ISAC, GridEx exercises, GridSecCon, and NERC Human Performance conferences.
If you have any questions, please visit our Contact Us page and direct your question to the Operatinal Analysis & Awareness group.