Situational Awareness
Reliable grid operation depends on situational awareness with the constant availability of critical tools and information to support informed decision-making by system operators. Unexpected outages of tools, or planned outages without appropriate coordination or oversight, can leave system operators without visibility to safely operate the BPS. While failure of a decision-support tool seldom results in the complete loss of monitoring or control capability at a BES control center for 30 continuous minutes or more, over time it could manifest as latent risk with potential reliability impact. For the 2025-26 RRA, situational awareness received a medium risk score.
NERC Reliability Standard EOP-004-4 (Event Reporting) requires the timely reporting of operational events, including system-wide voltage reduction, load shedding, generation loss, impacts to a transmission control center, loss of operational communications, or loss of monitoring or control capability. Each responsible entity maintains an event reporting operating plan to provide timely notification of adverse impacts to the control center, communications, or monitoring capability.
An Energy Management System (EMS) is an automatic control system used by system operators to maintain situational awareness. RF analyzes EMS outages that are reported through several communication channels including EOP-004, OE-417, and the voluntary ERO Event Analysis Process. Between 2020 and 2025, RF identified 60 events that involved a loss of EMS tools and technology for 30 continuous minutes or more. As seen in Figure 18, there were 13 SCADA/EMS category 1h losses in 2025, and the number of these outages has remained relatively flat since 2020.
Figure 18. EMS Outages in RF Footprint (2020-2025)
Figure 18. EMS Outages in RF Footprint (2020-2025)
RF observed that the number of state estimator/real time contingency analysis (SE/RTCA) and inter-control center protocol (ICCP) losses have also declined since 2020. Entities have demonstrated measurable improvement in preventing reportable events, with reductions in the frequency of EMS outages and the duration of events. These trends are encouraging and indicate improved system reliability.
As shown in Figure 19, power losses did not result in any EMS outages between 2020 and 2025. The most prevalent EMS failure type was the complete loss of EMS monitoring and/or control capability during maintenance. Elevated concern arises when an EMS outage occurs in combination with other reliability risks, creating overlapping vulnerabilities.
Figure 19. EMS Apparent Cause in RF Footprint (2020-2025)
Figure 19. EMS Apparent Cause in RF Footprint (2020-2025)
RF’s data collection for reported EMS outages includes the various causes for each outage. From 2020 to 2024, 76% of all reported EMS outages were categorized as either maintenance (43%) or software-related (33%). RF observed that the frequency of maintenance, software, and settings issues had a flat or downward trend since 2020, while data issues decreased during this time.
Threat intelligence program
The Situational Awareness – Threat Intelligence (SA-TI) Program enhances RF’s ability to anticipate, detect, and respond to risks impacting the electric grid. Since the program’s inception in 2021, RF has implemented foundational processes for threat collection, analysis, and communication. Recently, RF strengthened its collaboration with E-ISAC by testing capabilities in a simulated environment at GridEx.
In 2024, the SA-TI program expanded with revised procedures and advanced tools, and increased engagement with stakeholders across the ERO and industry. In 2025, new initiatives included a weekly situational awareness report and an SA-TI dashboard. These efforts have positioned RF to proactively address emerging cyber, physical, and operational threats, supporting stakeholders in risk management and grid resilience.
Communication protocols & operation instructions
The ERO has recently highlighted risks associated with operational communications as a rising concern for BPS reliability. The Reliability Coordinators (RC) maintain a wide-area view and issue mandatory Operating Instructions to prevent and respond to reliability threats. COM-002-4 (Operating Personnel Communications Protocols) and IRO-014-3 (Coordination Among Reliability Coordinators) govern these communications, which must be concise, accurate, timely, and definitive to ensure grid stability and reliability.
Effective collaboration and communication across different critical infrastructures is also critical to maintain system reliability during events. For example, in the RF footprint, improved communications with representatives in the natural gas sector provides enhanced situational awareness related to fuel availability during extreme winter weather events.
RF, in partnership with its ERO peers, is reviewing the potential risks associated with control centers communicating with generation resources. This may result in recommendations to revise existing NERC Reliability Standards or expand their applicability.
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