Office of Energy Infrastructure Security (OEIS)

OEIS Org Chart

What We Do

The Office of Energy Infrastructure Security (OEIS) protects national security and public safety by working with the industry, federal agencies, states, and local, tribal and territorial authorities to better secure our nation’s critical infrastructure from both cyber and physical security threats.

OEIS’ work is conducted through FERC’s statutory mandates under the Federal Power Act, the Interstate Commerce Act, and the Natural Gas Act helping to oversee the reliability, security, and/or safety of FERC’s jurisdictional energy infrastructure.  OEIS works directly with other federal agencies to help identify current and emerging vulnerabilities and state-of-the-art threats to critical infrastructure.  OEIS works with industry members and stakeholders to inform them of these vulnerabilities and threats, assess their security and resiliency posture, and to assist them to identify, prioritize, and implement improvements.

OEIS focus is on:

• Partnering with other federal agencies, including the intelligence community, to help identify current and emerging national security threats, including those conducted against the energy sector and interdependent sectors.
• Developing recommendations and initiatives to address cyber and physical security threats and vulnerabilities to energy infrastructure facilities including electric, oil and natural gas pipelines, liquified natural gas terminals, and hydroelectric facilities.
• Working with the Intelligence Community and other federal agencies to engage with the energy sector and others to promptly research and analyze the effects of the threats on critical infrastructure.
• Conducting proactive and reactive security analyses and assessments to identify and address threats and vulnerabilities to FERC-jurisdictional facilities, including the electric grid, oil and natural gas pipelines, hydropower dams and liquefied natural gas terminals. 
• Engaging with Information Sharing and Analysis Centers and other stakeholder groups to share threat and vulnerability information, conduct industry outreach and participate in the preparation of targeted and industry-wide critical alerts and other vital communications.
• Collaborating in classified and unclassified working security sessions and tabletop exercises with federal partners and the private sector, states, and other stakeholders, to convey information and develop effective mitigations while also assisting industry members to obtain security clearances.
• Serving on government task forces, conducting research projects, working with the national laboratories and others to help identify current and emerging gaps in security protection and help develop solutions to address them.
• Assisting with industry and interagency efforts to prevent wide-spread and prolonged outages from geomagnetic disturbances, electromagnetic pulses and intentional electromagnetic interferences.
• Leading technical reviews and evaluations of FERC regulatory proceedings and filings by utilities for security investments including those that implement advanced cyber and physical security protections.

OEIS work supports the Commission’s work to ensure reliable, safe, secure & economically efficient energy for consumers at a reasonable cost.  OEIS conducts this work on a collaborative basis with the energy industry, separate and apart from enacting and enforcing regulations.  This work enables the rapid adoption of targeted best practices to address even the most sophisticated and impactful threats to energy infrastructure without establishing new or revised regulations.