Microgrids

[Surferbeetle]

From Business Week, by Katie Fehrenbacher: Securing the Smart Power Grid from Hackers

Imagine if the havoc caused by Internet viruses and wormS—downed web sites, snatched credit card data, and so forth—were unleashed on the power grid's critical infrastructure. The results could include targeted blackouts, tampering with power generation (including nuclear plants), or the use of energy consumption data for malicious intent. For while a smart power grid, which leverages information technology to add more intelligence to the electricity network, will give consumers and utilities more control over energy consumption, the transformation from analog to digital will bring to the grid a threat that plagues the Internet: hacking.

Crucial to maintaining security will be establishing industry standards. At the smart grid policy meeting held last week, FERC Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff issued a statement calling for the development of "standards to ensure the reliability and security, both physical and cyber, of the electric system." While FERC doesn't itself develop standards, the agency will be asking for input from standards bodies that work on security in the Internet, engineering, and electronics industries. Over the next month and a half, companies and consumers can offer their thoughts as to the direction the standards will take.

The second factor needed to secure the smart grid will be an open platform. This sounds counterintuitive, but as Pacific Crest's Schuman explains, the most robust security systems out there are largely based on already established open standards. In order for third-party developers to be able to contribute their best solutions to a smart power grid, it must be based on an open platform as well.

Ultimately the hurdles to securing the smart grid are not impossibly high. The benefits of offering consumers and utilities more control over energy consumption—reducing energy use and carbon reduction—far outweigh the security concerns.

Long term FOB's with resupply issues might be great test beds...

[SethB]

Insulation and right-sizing of cooling equipment can cut energy use for space cooling by up to 80%. A smart micro-grid could flatten energy demand to the point that capital costs (in the form of generators or even TGER units) could be significantly reduced and overall energy consumption reduced slightly as well.

This could reduce the amount of logistical support needed to engage in expeditionary warfare by a considerable amount, and more importantly, would have secondary and tertiary effects as the reduced need for fuel burrows through CSS requirements, including significantly reduced requirements for force protection.

While reading a paper by Colin Gray, I found the following quote by Henry E. Eccles, originally published in 1965:

[A]ll logistic activities naturally tend to grow to inordinate size, and unless positive control is maintained, this growth continues until, like a ball of wet snow, a huge accumulation of slush obscures the hard core of essential combat support, and the mass becomes unmanageable. This snowball effect permeates the entire structure of military organization and effort.

A smart grid is also superior when attempting to integrate renewable energy sources with fossil fuel generation.

[selil]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

[Ken White]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

Been known for a while so Plan b has to be used...

[Ron Humphrey]

Been known for a while so Plan b has to be used...

Make sure that whatever pain they bring hurts them too and preferably can be clearly seen as hurting a whole lot worse than us

[selil]

Make sure that whatever pain they bring hurts them too and preferably can be clearly seen as hurting a whole lot worse than us

Currently that is the primary protection. Mutually assured destruction is inherently part of the equation when dealing with nation-state on nation-state. When terrorism enters the picture that becomes a bit of thorny issue.

[Ron Humphrey]

Currently that is the primary protection. Mutually assured destruction is inherently part of the equation when dealing with nation-state on nation-state. When terrorism enters the picture that becomes a bit of thorny issue.

Was how business, local and regional law enforcement, emergency services, heck just about any given group you look at seem absolutely chaotic under "normal" working conditions but let an emergency take place and all the sudden they can turn into a well oiled machine with all the directional paths well defined and each piece working solidly toward a task.

Maybe thats because they spend a lot more time on working out the how to's in relation how to deal with X condition should it happen then they do just working out their normal day to day relationships. Seems like the same should go for limited non-state actors response as well.

If they know that knocking out x,y, and Z may cause panic but it also will bring down the focus that comes with that scenario (meaning in short their gonna get a lot more effective and focused attention than they would otherwise) it should help to adjust their cost benefit analysis on what they want to achieve.

Example: If you take out a small portion of the grid there would be a lot more whining and disgruntlement among the populous then if you take down a big chunk of it. IF the big chunk was taken down there's gonna be a lot more screams to kill the #$@# who did it then there would be whining over why theres no power.

Rambling and almost nonsensical I know but not sure how to put it differently.

??

[Presley Cannady]

I'll just say it. There currently is NO POSSIBLE WAY to secure the power grid completely. Dr. Wiess just testified to congress on this issue on last Tuesday.

So long as any joker can cook up heavy duty explosives with household items, of course not. And given that even the most compact, redundant generation solutions still have easily countable nodes, you're still at risk for catastrophic failures. Theoretically, you should be able to reduce irrevocable catastrophic risk to a negligible degree, usually by combining some sort of redundancy strategy like local generation, layered grids, etc., with a well planned, temporary evacuation to some place...say...up to fifty miles away.