Align Risk Questionnaire Update

On March 21, 2026, the risk questionnaires Texas RE sends through Align received an update. If your organization completes these questionnaires, you’ll see a simpler experience for new risk assessments with new and updated questions designed to make things clearer and reflect evolving risks. Changes to the questionnaire include:

• New Risk Assessments: If you’re starting a new risk assessment, you’ll now complete one consolidated questionnaire (instead of two separate ones).
• Category 2 GO/GOP Questions: If you complete a Generator Owner (GO) or Generator Operator (GOP) questionnaire and Category 2 applies to your resources, you’ll see additional questions. Category 2 GO/GOP registrations apply to inverter-based resources (IBRs)—such as solar, wind, or storage—with an aggregate capacity of at least 20 MVA connected at 60 kV or higher. Additional information on Category 2 resources is available at Texas RE’s Resource Hub and in slides from an April 2025 Talk with Texas RE on the topic (the recording has been removed from Texas RE’s website due to retention policy).
• New Transmission Questions: You’ll see added clarifying questions for the load risk factor and critical transmission risk factor. Texas RE also updated questions related to CIP-014 assets, interconnection details, and medium impact transmission assets to request more information where needed.
• Clarifying Improvements: Additional revisions were made to improve clarity and capture emerging risks. Areas that may look different include: CIP-external electronic communications risk factor, CIP-monitor and control capability risk factor, voltage control risk factor, Control Center capability, extreme weather, and internal controls.

If you receive a questionnaire on or after March 21, 2026, expect a slightly different layout and potentially a few additional questions. To make completion easier, it may help to confirm your registration details ahead of time (including whether Category 2 applies for any IBR resources) and have current information ready for interconnections, applicable assets, and control/communications capabilities. For more information on Category 2 GOs and GOPs, see NERC’s IBR Registration Initiative Quick Reference Guide for Category 2 GO/GOP.