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Distribution Automation


Network Security

Protecting sensitive customer and utility data BY JOHN CHOWDHURY, Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. Smart meters, and the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) on which they depend, collect and transport vast amounts of data. While the data provides more precise energy billing, as well as...

Substation Automation T&D


Interoperability for the Smart Grid

Standards are just the beginning BY RICK GEIGER, Cisco Systems The aging electrical infrastructure and utility industry is undergoing its greatest transition in a generation. Grid modernization is already having a significant impact on how the energy industry operates. As with the adoption of any...

Utility Automation & Monitoring T&D


CIP Compliance Yields Security Complacency

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...

Smart Metering T&D


Extracting Value From Big Data

Moving forward with distribution automation and intelligent electronic devices BY JOHN MCDONALD, GE Digital Energy The ongoing rollout of interval (aka “smart”) meters and the resulting deluge of data have rightly received much attention and triggered the initial impetus for electric utility...

Asset Management & Maintenance


Storm Hardening Utility Communications

Save money and increase reliability. BY JEFF GROSSHAUSER, Motorola Preparing for winter is more than just a seasonal ritual for utility providers. Electricity and gas must still power cities during violent snowstorms and extreme cold. Arguably, that power is never more needed than when extreme...

Energy Storage & Grid Integration


FirstEnergy Explores Alternatives to PJM Capacity Market

In a strategic move aimed at enhancing its power supply reliability, FirstEnergy is actively exploring alternatives to the PJM capacity market. This development reflects the company’s proactive approach to addressing challenges within the existing market structure and ensuring a more robust...

T&D Automation

Ethernet Cable Selection for Utilities

Electric utilities are constantly searching for the most efficient, reliable and cost-effective methods to deliver electricity to customers. A vision for accomplishing this is the migration of the electrical grid from a reliable, but inflexible system to the Smart Grid, which promises adaptability and efficiency.

One definition of the Smart Grid, based on work from the U.S. Department of Energy, is: "A modernized electrical grid that uses information and communications technology to gather and act on information in an automated fashion…to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity".

The promises of the Smart Grid are exciting on many fronts...

T&D Automation Articles