Mark VIe control systems are provided with a lot of new turbines, and the timers and counters are very important for some warranty issues. They don't want people willy-nilly changing the values of timers and counters.
So, the values for most of the timers and counters are stored in non-volatile RAM on the main microprocessor--because not every turbine will always use all the same cards, but every turbine will use a main microprocessor (as will DCS/BOP applications).
And it requires a password to change the values of most timers and counters stored in non-volatile RAM (NOVRAM).