Cybersecurity, Reliability & CIP

“Renewable power is at less risk if it’s on an installation behind a fence. Our fence provides security. That is why it’s attractive to utilities.”

“Nobody wants to touch a 20-year-old server, PLC, HMI or human machine interface, an engineering workstation in operational environment, and allow some computer or automated capability to block it. Putting automated detection and response capabilities in place for critical infrastructure is, for lack of a better term, critical.”

“We’ve worked cooperatively with states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, and Indiana that have strong cyber capacities within their respective public utility commissions.”

“We don’t necessarily have the regulatory mechanisms in place that allow the regulators to be able to evaluate assets that are designed for those low-frequency but high-impact events.”

“It is time for a win for rural electric cooperative members nationwide who wish to pursue flexible, innovative energy solutions.”

“What we expect is a lot of cyber policies will be litigated in court. It’s trying to figure out attribution, and attribution is difficult to prove.”

“Risk management in this space falls into three large buckets. First people, then process. Have we built an appropriate process that uses people and has sufficient oversight and controls? Then it’s technology.”

“One of the events was a cyberattack on GPS systems found in vehicles. This threat was taken from a real government alert. Vehicles started shutting down.”

Association of Edison Illuminating Companies This Month: The growing fleet is a major part of our storm-response toolbox and as technology continues to change, the new vehicles are designed and built to be upgraded over the years. It’s an investment and we project to get up to thirty years of use for each new vehicle

“Grid resiliency is deeply intertwined with the influences of other infra­structures, and this impacts how we value grid improvements.”