W ithin the utility industry, regional entities increasingly focus on internal controls as a measuring stick for overall compliance performance.

Developing and executing rock-solid internal controls with an automated compliance management software solution can help maintain compliance, not only during a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) audit but at all times.

Those utilities that are most successful from a compliance perspective don’t implement these systems just to achieve basic compliance. Rather, their overarching aim is to be safe, resilient, and reliable; compliance is just a by-product of that goal.

Regulations, regulations, and more regulations

The fundamental challenge of managing NERC internal controls comes from the sheer volume and complexity of requirements that utilities must comply with. Utilities must execute and document thousands of tasks to achieve compliance: software patching to password changes, employee training, vegetation management, and more.

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