A recently published report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights the significant cybersecurity risks facing the nation’s power grid. One of the key findings in this report is that “the grid is becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks - particularly those involving industrial control systems (ICS) that support grid operations.”
While cyber incidents have yet to cause a power outage on the US grid, there does appear to be legitimate cause for concern....
In an unprecedented alert, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI have warned of persistent attacks by Russian government hackers on critical US government sectors, including energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation and manufacturing. The alert details numerous...
Recent physical attacks on substations have heightened the industry’s awareness of the necessity for physical security of critical facilities on the bulk power system. The goal of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability...
As the big push behind NERC CIP v5/v6 comes to some form of “conclusion”, most U.S. utility executives are breathing a huge sigh of relief. Their efforts to make their high and medium impact facilities compliant are finally completing. However for some insiders, there is a concern that a...
Utilize industry guidelines for modern and future technologies BY W. CHARLTON ADAMS JR., IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), Huawei Technologies A vision is coalescing worldwide of people ubiquitously connected across smart cities, smart buildings, smart cars and, perhaps, even through sensors on...
Utilities are rethinking cybersecurity. The zero-trust model replaces perimeter defense with continuous verification—of every device, vendor, and data path—across the substation and supply chain. The End of Perimeter Thinking For decades, substation cybersecurity meant building walls:...
A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is seeking public input on proposed "ride-through" reliability standards for inverter-based resources (IBRs), including wind, solar, and battery systems. These standards aim to ensure that IBRs can maintain operation during grid disturbances, such as...
The rapid shift toward renewable energy resources (RERs) has placed significant demands on traditional power systems. To address these challenges, modern energy infrastructure is evolving into smart grids, leveraging advanced technologies like Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) to enhance grid...
A small town in North Carolina has filed a lawsuit against Duke Energy, one of the largest utility companies in the United States, alleging that the company has been deceptive in its efforts to downplay the environmental impact of its operations. The lawsuit, filed by the town of Smithfield, claims...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
