Smart Grid Interoperability Panel

People (September 2013)

Southern Power names William Grantham CFO; Allen Leverett succeeds Gale Klappa as Wisconsin Energy president; Derek Porter ascends to DPL president; OGE CFO Sean Trauschke becomes president of OG&E; plus personnel announcements at New York ISO, Washington UTC, the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, and others.

Security and the States

The regulator’s role in promoting cybersecurity for the smart grid.

State commissions can select from a toolkit of regulatory approaches to promote desired utility cybersecurity behavior. One approach is to allow the industry to selfregulate, and another approach is to leave the job to the federal government. But sofar, neither the industry nor the federal government have developed and implemented adequate standards for securing the smart grid. States can play a constructive role—albeit perhaps not in the form of traditional regulation.

Keeping Your Kilowatts Private

A survey of state policies on release of customer data.

The advent of smart grid technology has raised new and challenging issues concerning data privacy. Of course, data privacy isn’t a new concern for the energy industry, as utilities have always collected customer data, some of which is common to any business, such as contact and credit information, and some of which is unique to the energy industry, such as usage and demand data.

Securing Tomorrow's Grid (Part I)

Protecting smart systems against cyber threats.

Smart grid technologies bring a host of cyber security considerations that need to be addressed throughout the T&D domain—and even into the customer’s home. In this exclusive report, Department of Energy authors team up with industry experts to examine how to deal with the changes and challenges of securing the smart grid.

Vendor Neutral

(June 2011) Duke and ATC team up to build transmission lines; AEP installs bioreactor to control selenium emissions; NextEra buys 100 MW of wind from Google; Ocean Power Technologies awards contracts for wave power array; Kansas City picks Elster; BC Hydro picks Itron; plus contracts and developments involving Tres Amigas, Ioxus, Opower and others.

Techno-Regulation

The smart grid and the slippery business of setting industry standards.

Four years ago, Congress made its wishes known: it tabbed the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop a set of standards for the smart grid, and then instructed FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “adopt” those standards, but only after finding a ”sufficient consensus,” and only “as may be necessary” to assure “functionality and interoperability.” Yet what is known is not necessarily clear. Who decides if consensus prevails? What does “interoperability” mean? Should FERC’s “necessary” finding extend to retail smart grid applications, arguably outside its purview? And the biggest dispute — must standards be mandatory? — finds PJM at odds with much of the utility industry.

Smart Grid in America and Europe (Part II)

Past accomplishments and future plans.

Policy makers in the E.U. and the United States are taking different approaches to facilitating smart grid development. While both regions are setting standards that the rest of the world likely will follow, they also face difficult challenges in resolving issues around cost recovery, customer engagement and workforce preparedness.

People (March 2010)

FirstEnergy announced that James G. Garanich is named v.p., tax, replacing the retired Gene Sitarz. Garanich was a tax partner with Ernst & Young. Ty R. Pine was hired as state governmental affairs manager for Ohio. Duke Energy Generation Services appointed Tony Dorazio as senior v.p. for wind development. He helped launch London-based BP Alternative Energy’s wind power business. And more...