By Mae Kowalke
Around the world, electricity distribution infrastructure is being transformed using "smart grid" technologies. Although this is happening more quickly in some areas than others, the purpose is the same: secure energy supplies and ensure they remain viable.
This goes beyond security, of course, to profits – as such things always do.
“The bottom-line benefit is more efficient use of energy,” noted Peter Johnson, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Smart Grid division, in a GridTalk e-zine article, “Protecting the smart grid with today’s solutions,” about smart grid security.
In North America and elsewhere, the smart grid transformation is focused on moving toward solutions for the power industry based on converged IP/MPLS networks, which enable timelier reporting and better control. This is becoming more critical because technology in general is becoming less centralized, and security is therefore a more spread-out endeavor.
“Communications and other critical data are no longer contained inside traditional network boundaries, but now reach out to the edges where there is more opportunity for interception or attack, which means that more devices have to be protected,” Johnson noted.
Making sure there is a continual supply of affordable energy when it’s needed also requires building infrastructure that addresses data privacy and “the human element.”
Security, privacy and the human element (all components of “teleprotection”) are very much on the minds of decision-makers at AltaLink, which in 2010 began a four-year project to upgrade 12,000 kilometers (approximately 7,456 miles) of distribution and communication infrastructure in Western Canada.
Smart grid upgrades have now reached more than 65 of AltaLink’s 300 substations.
The multi-tier security system being put in place makes use of IP/MPLS intelligence, with centralized authentication and logging, security policies for each service, and a Layer 2 VPN firewall, among other capabilities
“We deploy industry best practices,” said Cory Struth, AltaLink’s Network Architect, in a GridTalk e-zine article, “Altalink: Implementing an end-to-end smart grid security strategy.” “We have centralized user management so that there is one button to push to take everybody off if necessary.”
While MPLS technology helps ensure a high level of data security, the biggest challenge is the human element.
“The technology itself is maybe 30 to 40 percent of the equation, with the human aspect the bigger wildcard in the whole migration,” said Clint Struth, Principal Engineer at AltaLink’s Telecommunications Networking division, in the article. “Trying to get the people to buy in, learn the technology, and fully understand it and be capable with it is a much more difficult process.”
Challenges and benefits are both inherent in smart grid deployments. This new type of ecosystem leverages diverse knowledge and technology, which makes it potentially more challenging to maintain – although if done right that need not be the case.
“Highly effective security can be designed into a deployment, and it will be far stronger and more effective than anything that has come before,” ALU’s Johnson said.
At least in the U.S., regulation is key to adoption of smart grid security. That’s because, as Johnson points out, cyber security tends to be driven by regulatory requirements.
“The role of Smart Grid technology is to provide the tool set that allows the utility to adequately protect its network and meet its obligations to both regulators and customers,” Johnson stressed.
None of this will happen overnight. But the benefits are too great to not begin acting now.
“The emerging imperatives for smart grid security include getting a consistent level of attention around the world for the issues, and then implementing solutions in a productive fashion,” Johnson said. “Central to this is the absolute imperative to design in security from the outset of smart grid design, and not to try and add it in after the fact.”
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