EnerNex Introduces Smart Grid Security Guidelines for the Utility Industry

By Mandira Srivastava, TMCnet Contributor

Over the past several years, smart grid technologies have been used in power generation, transmission, and consumption. To offer prescriptive, actionable guidance for utilities and vendors implementing Smart Grid systems, EnerNex has introduced the latest deliverables in a series of Smart Grid-related Cyber Security documents.

According to a press release, the documents, also referred to as Cyber Security Profiles, are part of the 2010 phase of the Advanced Security Acceleration Project for the Smart Grid (ASAP-SG) to accelerate the development of security requirements and standards for the electric utility industry.

EnerNex, along with the utilities of the Open Smart Grid Subcommittee of the UCA International Users Group in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and other interested parties, joined to form ASAP-SG.

ASAP-SG offers all electric utilities uniform access to a greater body of knowledge and expertise than would otherwise be available to any one utility. Currently the team has begun development on a Wide Area Management, Protection and Control Security Profile that includes SynchroPhasors.

Bobby Brown, director of Communication and Information Systems Security for EnerNex and project manager of ASAP-SG, stated that these deliverables are vital to the industry as utilities are deploying smart grid systems and infrastructure and this clear, actionable guidance outlined in these documents ensure security is built-in to the deployment of Smart Grid.

The project was created to be a utility-driven, public-private collaborative effort to develop recommendations and best practices for architecting, designing, acquiring, integrating, and operating smart grid systems. DOE is helping to support ASAP-SG by matching contributions from utilities dollar-for-dollar.

In the first phase of the project, three application centric Security guidelines were produced and delivered to the Open Smart Grid Subcommittee and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) - Cyber Security Working Group covering: Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Distribution Management and Third Party Energy Data Access.

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(source: http://smart-grid.tmcnet.com/topics/smart-grid/articles/138666-enernex-introduces-smart-grid-security-guidelines-the-utility.htm)