ReliabilityFirst 20-year anniversary timeline

2006

ReliabilityFirst (RF) was created from three legacy regions following the 2003 Northeast Blackout.
FERC certifies NERC as the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) in the U.S. following Energy Policy Act of 2005.
RF performs its first regional long-term resource assessment to ensure the generating capacity in its footprint is sufficient to supply the load connected to its members’ systems.

2007

RF is approved by FERC as one of eight Regional Entities in North America.
FERC approves the first set of mandatory and enforceable NERC Reliability Standards.
RF begins monitoring Operations and Planning Reliability Standards for the Bulk Electric System.
RF holds its first workshop to provide compliance information to the industry.

2008

FERC approves the first version of the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) cyber security standards, which become mandatory and enforceable on July 1.
RF creates the Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee (CIPC) from the Critical Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee of the Reliability Committee.
RF establishes its first strategic plan for the organization.

2009

RF files its first enforcement resolution.
ERO Enterprise begins Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) audits.

2010

RF becomes aware of widespread discrepancies between design and actual field conditions of transmission facilities. This leads to a NERC Alert resulting in cooperation with industry to analyze and assess the risk by surveying thousands of facilities, often using LiDAR technology.

2011

RF launches the Assist Visit program
FERC approves RF’s Regional Reliability Standard BAL-502-RF-02 addressing resource adequacy for load in the RF footprint

2012

Hurricane Sandy ravages the eastern seaboard with massive winds and record-breaking storm surge, marking arguably the most impactful event in the RF region over the past 20 years, as more than 9,500 MW of load was lost in the PJM area. Through many challenges including flooding, fallen trees, and managing high voltage, industry was able to restore power to 95% of customers within 13 days of the storm’s impact.

2013

RF pilots a voluntary appraisal program assessing internal controls, management practices, and the design of programs. This program was applied to assessing protection and controls programs at utilities that later demonstrated measurable performance improvement in reducing misoperations.
The Metcalf substation incident in California marks increasing adversarial sophistication and leads to a NERC Alert on physical security.

2014

RF relocates from Fairlawn, Ohio, to Independence, just south of Cleveland.
RF starts a Cold Weather Winterization program following the PJM Polar Vortex in January 2014.
RF begins piloting its self-logging program. Under this program, approved entities that have been found to have sufficient internal controls may provide self-logs for review of instances of noncompliance deemed minimal risk by the ERO Enterprise in lieu of submitting self-reports.

2015

The ERO Enterprise transitions to a risk-based enforcement program pursuant to FERC Order 804, approving the “Find, Fix, and Track” disposition method for minimal risk violations.
NERC Reliability Standard CIP-014 adds physical security provisions for major substations and Control Centers.
RF collaborates with the ERO Enterprise on the publication of its first CIP Themes and Lessons Learned Report.

2016

CIP “version 5,” the first major revision of the CIP Standards, becomes enforceable.
RF’s Assist Visit program hits a major milestone in participation with 35 assist visits, and continues to grow in the years to come.
NERC issues a NERC Alert on ransomware, noting this significant cyber security risk that continues to grow in the years to come.

2017

RF elevates misoperations as a key reliability risk, following discussions with FERC and industry, dedicating an entire day to this topic at that year’s Spring Reliability Workshop, and conducting targeted Assist Visits discussing misoperation data.
RF expands its Event Analysis and Situational Awareness programs, reviewing and coding 73 new events.

2018

RF identifies Facility Ratings as a systemic industry risk, leading to increased substation walk-downs to ensure that Facility Ratings are accurate, and implementation of new controls to help ensure they remain accurate.
With the help of SERC and WECC, RF publishes the second edition of the CIP Themes and Lessons Learned Report, providing insight on how breaking down organizational silos can improve security performance.

2019

RF launches the Cyber Resilience Assessment tool, a new service for entities to leverage in measuring their organizations’ level of preparedness for a cyber attack and learn best practices to strengthen their programs.
The ERO Enterprise consolidates from eight regions to six.

2020

NERC Reliability Standard CIP-013 adds supply chain requirements, such as disclosure of vulnerabilities and notification of security issues.
RF launches Technical Talk with RF, the organization’s flagship monthly webinar with a range of programming geared toward registered entities, state-level decision makers, other industry and government stakeholders, and beyond.

2021

NERC and the Regional Entities collaborate on the Align Project, a new tool central to the ERO Enterprise’s CMEP activities.
Winter Storm Uri causes catastrophic power outages in Texas, affecting millions of residents there and contributing to hundreds of fatalities, becoming a highly analyzed outage event in industry history.

2022

RF President and CEO Tim Gallagher testifies alongside NERC President and CEO Jim Robb in the Indiana State Senate on electric grid reliability, one of the first key milestones in the growth of RF’s State Outreach efforts.
The NERC Long-Term Reliability Assessment (LTRA) highlights significant reliability risks across the continent for the first time.
RF collaborates with NERC and the other Regions on the ERO Enterprise Themes and Best Practices for Sustaining Accurate Facility Ratings joint report.
The RF Compliance Monitoring Team identifies a vulnerability that could affect many entities during a monitoring engagement. The engagement team then partnered with E-ISAC to share the findings, which were issued as an E-ISAC Alert to all registered E-ISAC entities. This marked the first ERO Compliance Monitoring team finding to result in an E-ISAC Alert.
Winter Storm Elliott wreaks havoc on the Northeast U.S., emphasizing extreme cold weather risk and accelerating implementation of NERC winterization standards EOP-011 and EOP-012. This event also drew widespread political attention, leading to RF testifying at numerous state hearings on grid reliability topics.

2023

RF conducts its first state grid disturbance tabletop exercise in Columbus, Ohio, leading to annual exercises in other states across the RF footprint in ensuing years.
RF launches the Reliability Recognition Awards program to celebrate entity success stories in maintaining the reliability and security of the electric grid.
RF’s annual Reliability and Security Workshop evolves into the Reliability and Security Summit, bringing key leaders from related industries and state policymakers into the fold in Pittsburgh, PA.
RF becomes a co-chair of the newly created State Outreach and Provincial Group (SPOG) committee. Working with NERC and the other regions, this committee focuses on outreach and education to commissioners, legislators, state energy offices, and staff regarding our assessments, findings, and reports. These activities include testimonies and hearings, written comments, speaking at large conferences, and one-on-one state meetings.
RF commemorates the 20-year anniversary of the 2003 Northeast Blackout with a video looking back at the progress industry has made since then and the challenges that remain. The blackout was the largest reliability event in the United States, which initiated the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the birth of the ERO Enterprise.

2024

The NERC Reliability Standards on winterization (EOP-011 and EOP-012) become mandatory and enforceable.
RF collaborates with the ERO Enterprise on the Interregional Transfer Capability Study.
FERC issues Orders 901 (Inverter-Based Resources) and 1920 (Transmission Planning), prioritizing these focus areas for the ERO Enterprise in the years to come.
The ERO Enterprise commences the Inverter-Based Resource (IBR) Registration Initiative.
RF collaborates with the ERO Enterprise on publication of the third edition of the CIP Themes and Lessons Learned Report.
RF’s 2024 Reliability and Security Summit in Indianapolis includes a legislative energy policy panel discussion featuring four legislators from different states discussing best practices and lessons learned.

2025

The NERC Large Loads Working Group is created following the proliferation of AI and data centers increasing load on the electric grid and raising key questions for the future.
RF publishes an after-action analysis on the August 2025 Baltimore Load Shed Event. The report details and analyzes the August 11, 2025, bulk power system disturbance that impacted approximately 4,000 customers in the Baltimore area.
RF participates in an ERO-wide pilot to advance energy analysis capabilities for future reliability assessments. The initiative introduced hourly, interconnection-wide energy analysis, enabling year-round assessment of resource adequacy risks rather than limiting evaluations to seasonal peak-demand conditions.
RF testifies at seven energy hearings across Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. These conversations focused on resource adequacy, essential reliability services, the pace of change, plus the reliable integration of large loads (often data centers) in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

2026

The ERO Enterprise completes the IBR Registration Initiative.
NERC launches the Modernization of Standards, Processes, and Procedures (MSPP) Initiative.
RF publishes its first Resource Adequacy Report (replacing the RF Long-term Reliability Assessment), assessing whether the RF region will have sufficient electricity resources to reliably meet rapidly increasing demand over the next decade.
RF hosts its first ever Electric Grid Bootcamp for state policymakers. This dynamic session covered topics regarding the ERO’s role in grid reliability and security, our assessments, a grid simulator exercise, a primer on Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), plus an interactive learning game on resource adequacy.