NERC glossary of the month

November 07, 2011

Each month, we share some of the terminology used by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. You’ll see these terms in reports and other coverage of the electric power industry, so it’s a good idea to brush up on exactly what NERC means.

Critical Assets
Critical assets are facilities, systems, and equipment which, if they were to be destroyed, degraded, or otherwise rendered unavailable, would affect the reliability or operability of the Bulk Electric System.

Critical Cyber Assets
These are Cyber Assets (defined below) that are essential to the reliable operation of Critical Assets.

Cyber Assets
This category of assets includes programmable electronic devices and communication networks, involving hardware, software, and data.