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Cybersecurity & Privacy


Writing Smart Grid Requirements

Managing change with positive thinking to make the most of investments BY JOHN MCDONALD, IEEE Senior Member, GE Energy Management - Digital Energy The process of writing requirements for Smart Grid-related technology purchases may appear simple and straightforward. It is not. As the technology...

Renewable Energy Connections


Plugging into Electric Vehicles

Most future planning discussions about electric vehicles begin with a prediction for significant impact by 2020. While these studies are important for future planning, utilities must consider the direct impact that EVs are currently having on society. Despite recent news about lower gas prices at...

Grid Communications


Communications, Data Hardening, and the Smart Grid

The SmartGrid continues to expand and gather new functions as needs expand. Automated metering, relay operation, RTU operation, electric management systems, remedial action schemes, SCADA, field reclosers, Synchrophasors, remote access, weather, and earthquake monitoring and future needs still yet...

DMS & SCADA


FERC Rejects PJM Transmission Planning Change

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has rejected a proposal from PJM Interconnection, one of the United States' largest regional transmission organizations, to alter its transmission planning protocol. The decision represents a significant victory for state regulators who had expressed...

Utility Automation & Monitoring


Enabling Smart Grid Volt/VAR Control

Optimizing power flow using a distribution model BY TIM TAYLOR, Ventyx Today’s emphasis on implementing energy efficiency programs and limiting peak demand growth has driven renewed interest in the most effective method to implement Smart Grid volt-ampere reactive control, or Smart Grid volt/VAR...

Grid Modernization


Deep Packet Inspection Firewalls

Protecting legacy SCADA systems from cyberattacks BY ERIC BYRES, Belden Over the past decade, the power industry has embraced network technologies such as Ethernet and transmission control protocol (TCP)/Internet protocol suite (IP) for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and...

Smart Grid

Hardening the Power Grid

How to improve reliability by hardening the power grid

BY BO ZENG, WEI YUAN & LONG ZHAO, University of South Florida

North America relies heavily on its interconnected power grid. Throughout its history, the grid has provided years of reliable electricity to 300 million people to power home electronics, large industrial motors, critical machines in hospitals (that is, life support systems), among others. However, this reliability is now coming into question. The power grid is...

Smart Grid Articles