Enforcement
Compliance Enforcement is the process by which NERC issues sanctions and ensures mitigation of confirmed violations of mandatory NERC Reliability Standards. As part of these efforts, NERC can also issue directives to immediately address and deter new or further violations, irrespective of their presence or status (i.e., confirmed or alleged). Sanctioning of confirmed violations is determined pursuant to the NERC Sanction Guidelines and is based heavily upon the Violation Risk Factors and Violation Severity Levels of the standards requirements violated and the violations’ duration. Entities found in violation of any standard must submit a mitigation plan for approval by NERC and, once approved, must execute this plan as submitted.