Risk Management Program

The WECC Risk Management Program (RMP) is a collaborative initiative to address both established and emerging risks that could affect the reliability and security of the Western Interconnection's Bulk Power System (BPS). The program engages stakeholders — including utilities, system operators, regulators, and policymakers — to ensure a comprehensive approach to risk management.

WECC engages with the industry through the RMP by sharing information about priority risks, gathering stakeholder input through its risk dashboard and other outreach opportunities including webinars, workshops, presentations, the Reliability in the West Discussion Series, the State of the Interconnection report, and more.

Key components of the RMP:

• Identification — Risks are identified by WECC (e.g., through assessments), stakeholders, or interested parties.
• Ranking — WECC and technical stakeholders analyze, rank, and sort the risks in accordance with WECC's ISO 31000-based risk management process and ranking methods.
• Prioritization — WECC works with stakeholders to prioritize the ranked risks through town halls and associated outreach based on risk tolerance, whether other entities (e.g., NERC) are already working to address them, etc.
• Strategy and Planning — WECC staff develops strategies and plans work to mitigate risks, including WECC scorecard initiatives, goals, stakeholder treatment plans, etc.
• Treatment — This is the work to address the risks through standards development, risk-based oversight, white papers, and other work products.

Ways to interact with the RMP:

• Risk Dashboard: Interact and learn about ranked risks within the Western Interconnection by risk category and severity.
• Risk Register: Download and review detailed data about identified risks to the Western Interconnection BPS, including results of the WECC RMP analysis and the WECC Reliability Risk Committee (RRC) evaluation of each risk.
• System Performance Data Portal: Get real-time information on grid conditions, including maps, graphics, and data related to the reliability of the Bulk Electric System.
• State of the Interconnection: This report, released in Q2 of each year, examines key indicators of system performance, providing an overview of the health of the system and challenges the Western Interconnection faced in the previous calendar year.