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Cybersecurity, Reliability & CIP

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Including mobile substations in Strategic Transformer Reserve Program

Both spare large power transformers, and emergency mobile substations, have critical roles in the U.S. Department of Energy's Strategic Transformer Reserve Program, STRP. An emergency mobile substation can literally roll onto the site on the bed of a truck, run connecting wires to the power lines, and bypass all of the damaged substation equipment, allowing electricity to flow again within hours.
Byline: 

Joseph Donovan

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Preparing for the Inevitable

New Approach to Recovery from Catastrophic Losses of Grid Facilities

How to adequately prepare for recovery from catastrophic losses: Doing nothing may minimize cost in the short run, but it leaves electricity customers exposed to the risk of extended outages. At the other extreme, having each utility purchase its own dedicated inventory of critical equipment would be duplicative and prohibitively expensive for utility customers. A shared inventory model offers a sensible middle-ground approach.
Byline: 

Paul Afonso, Lauren Azar, Dian Grueneich and James Hoecker

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A Robotic Concrete Crawler

Play Station Controls Guide Robot on Concrete Inspection Trips

EPRI has designed a robot for inspecting hard-to-reach concrete surfaces. A robotic inspection system would eliminate the need to use scaffolding or rappelling for routine structural evaluations, eliminating the associated setup challenges, time requirements, costs, and safety hazards.
Byline: 

Maria Guimaraes

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Geomagnetic Disturbances and the Grid

Harmonics Studies Needed to Assess Vulnerabilities

NERC recently issued reliability standards in response to the potential for geomagnetic disturbances to disrupt operations and possibly damage assets. The power industry appears to have placed undue emphasis on GMD’s threat to transformers. Our studies and those by others have underscored the value to transmission organizations in assessing their vulnerability to harmonics.
Byline: 

David Mueller

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Remarkable Energy Careers: Jim Fama

We talked with Jim Fama, retiring and on his last day at EEI, about his remarkable career.

Jim Fama was the Edison Electric Institute’s vice president for energy delivery since 2002.
Byline: 

Jim Fama, with Steve Mitnick

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PPL CEO Interviewed

We went to Allentown and talked with Bill Spence.

What are the most exciting things happening at PPL? What were the biggest challenges in that journey? Were there some tough challenges you had to get through?
Byline: 

Bill Spence, with Steve Mitnick

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A Holistic Cyber Strategy

Security must be organizational – simply complying will leave you vulnerable.

Workforce Management: Because standards are aimed only at critical assets, cyber security must be holistic – with all employees involved.
Byline: 

Chip Scott, Justin Lowe, and Amanda Levin

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Electricity at War

Rumors tell of a cyber attack on the power grid.

Electricity in war today is akin to the railroads, dating from the Civil War: a high-value target. Every line of code is a land mine, waiting for hackers to detonate.
Byline: 

Llewellyn King

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Before the Death Spiral, a Black Hole

How rooftop solar picks off the utility’s largest and most lucrative customers.

Let's make it clear also that affixing solar panels to your roof won't take you off-grid. Indeed it takes you to even greater dependence.
Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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