ERCOT

One of 10 regional reliability councils in North America, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the Texas power grid.  The self-contained system services 85 percent of Texas, overseeing more than 70,000 MW of power generation and 37,000 miles (59,550 km) of transmission lines.

Kroll Security Group (KSG) was initially retained to develop three Security Master Plans.  An Architectural Security Master Plan was developed and delivered to the project architect to ensure that the physical aspects of the security program were addressed.  An Operational Plan was developed on behalf of the client in an effort to forecast the security posts and manpower requirements, in addition to policies and procedures for the sites.  An Electronic Security Master Plan was also submitted to document the proposed security systems for the sites.  

The systems included intrusion detection, alarm monitoring, access control, video imaging and badging, closed-circuit television with digital recording, and dedicated audio communications.  Because the client facilities were mission critical, requiring a comprehensive backup site, all systems were designed with real-time comprehensive redundancy via an OC3 communications link such that the elimination of one site would not affect the operation of the backup site, nor result in data loss from the downed site.

Another challenging aspect of the project was the design of multiple Security Operations Centers that provided for the monitoring and control of the security systems by each site’s shift supervisors.  Upon approval of the Master Plans, KSG was subsequently retained to provide the Design, Bid and Construction Administration services for the electronic security systems portion of the project.