Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
The US Electrical Grid Infrastructure continues to be vulnerable to cyber attackers and foreign nation state adversaries in attempts to bring havoc on power systems that supply other critical infrastructures.
Cyber security protection continues to be a major focus on power utilities and other critical systems. These cyber threats continue after power companies and their contractors as in the recent attacks.
Substations can be modelled in three-dimensions, allowing customers to see full scale in isometric views, or any views relative to positioning that they would not have had before with traditional 2D designs. Proper construction of electrical equipment in most 3D software also allows for efficient go-by production, as elements can be plugged in or removed in minutes, and entire substations can be remodeled according to revisions or to create whole new designs.
The ability to change the virtual materials of 3D models also allows for consistent and accurate representation of the substation. Instead of having a matte, grey mass in the shape of a transformer, circuit breaker, switches, concrete foundations, steel structures, insulators, and copper connection points can be expressed with proper physical dimensions of density, mass, etc., and includes appropriate colors that anyone who observes real-life substations can recognize.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued “new mandatory standards for inverter-based resources (IBRs) in an effort to enhance the reliability of the bulk electric system. IBRs are solar photovoltaic, wind, fuel cell and battery storage resources that use power electronic devices to change direct current power to alternating current power, to be transmitted on the bulk-power system.
In its November 17 action orders, FERC focused on three IBR-relateded actions:
By T&D World:
The US Department of Energy (DOE) will deploy long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects for maintaining power delivery for “10 to 24 hours or longer to support a low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electric grid. Funded in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this funding opportunity will advance new renewable energy technologies, enhance the capabilities of customers and communities to integrate grid storage more effectively, increase grid resilience, and expand America’s global leadership in energy storage.
The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $350 million for these emerging” type projects.
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) present major obstacles in grid reliability and protection against cyberattacks and threats. DOE states “they should be designed with security as a ‘core component.’
An attack on distributed solar or battery storage resources would have ‘negligible impact’ on grid reliability today, DOE said, but the capacity of DERs on the electric system is expected to quadruple by 2025 and the agency warned that each of those systems could be hacked.”
By T&D World:
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking information (RFIs) from rural areas in order to improve power generation to rural and remote users. DOE will spend $1 Billion for this plan to enhance the power grid by strengthening the power “resilience, reliability, and availability of energy systems, while simultaneously helping communities unlock the public health and cost-saving benefits to cleaner, and more efficient energy providers.”