ISA99 - New Working Group "Electric Energy OT Security Profile"

"The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), global equipment suppliers, and other stakeholders announced the establishment of the Electric Energy OT Security Profile working group hosted by the International Society of Automation ISA99 standards committee.

The Electric Energy OT Security Profile will be a cybersecurity work product utilizing the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards. The final product will be a formal ISA/IEC 62443 application guide, recognized globally as the consensus work product for securing various control systems used in electric energy generation, transmission, and distribution operations.

...

The ISA Electric Energy OT Security Profile working group is seeking participation from industry groups, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE), and other industry stakeholders to ensure consideration of and alignment with other cybersecurity work product development efforts. ... "

Click HERE for the press release.

Netze BW Erprobt FNN-Steuerboxen mit IEC 61850

In mehreren Pilotprojekten erprobt die Netze BW den Einsatz der FNN-Steuerboxen. Die Steuerboxen kommunizieren mit dem Steuerbox Administrator-System mittels IEC 61850. 

"„Die Erkenntnisse aus den Prüfungen im Karlsruher Labor und aus der gemeinsamen Arbeit fließen laufend in den Fortgang der Standardisierung zurück und dienen beispielsweise dazu, die Spezifikation zu präzisieren“, erklärt Jana Brandt, die in diesem Bereich zuständige Projektleiterin ist. ... Die Projektleiterin ist überzeugt: „Für den Bereich Technik & Innovation der Netze BW erweitern sich durch die Erkenntnisse die Optionen für die Netzintegration der E-Mobilität.“ ... Jana Brandt: „Zusammengefasst geht es um einen Beitrag zu Stabilität und Sicherheit im Verteilnetz, die Vermeidung von Kosten für den Netzausbau und somit letztlich zum Gelingen der Energiewende.“"

Klick HIER, um zum Beitrag zu gelangen.

How To Bring Plant Engineers To The Table When Cyber Issues Are Discussed?

In my career as electrical and IT engineer I have experienced that engineers are quite often not invited to discuss the measures and plans for critical infrastructure protection with IT personnel.

It is completely different compared to the world of electric power system protection - I mean the applications of protection relays. Protection engineers are (in my understanding) the most crucial engineers. They are very important for the reliable delivery of electric power. Protection engineers are likely to attend any meeting when it comes to the reliability of the power flows. Protection engineers know what to do ... software people may help to implement the "what" and the IT personnel may help to solve the communication issues ... but the crucial parts are dominated by protection engineers!

Mr. Vytautas Butrimas, a globally well known engineer involved in cyber security of control systems has briefly discussed the "Berlin wall" between IT personnel and plant engineers.  

Click HERE for the four page paper written by Mr. Butrimas.

Either of the groups involved believes that his or her group is the center of universe. There is little communication between the IT personnel and the engineers. 

There are so many semipermeable walls between, e.g., politicians, company lawyers, economists, IT experts, and plant engineers. There is usually no way that experts from any layer are allowed to talk to the experts from the other layers. In the end: Each layer feels independent of the other layers ... which leads to what we see these days ... and may be even more in the future. Have you heard of a discussion between a power protection engineer and a lawyer or even a medical doctor?

It would help medical doctors to understand the basics of electric power system reliability ... and so on. Because medical doctors (and all other people of a society) depend 100% on available power.

So in the end: (Electrical) Engineers should be honored by the society ... the problem may be that the engineers are not wearing white coats but wear safety boots, safety helmets, goggles,  protective gloves, ... a single doctor may harm a few people ... a protection engineer may harm millions of people during a blackout caused by a misconfiguration of protection equipment.

How Does Time Impact Our Life?

 I remember well the discussion on understanding and using UTC Time in IEC 61850 ... a very time consuming discussion. There are still discussions going on ... should UTC be replaced by something else?

Whatever format and scale you are using or inventing ... you will see problems over a longer period of use.

These days we see even cars may have crucial issues with processing of time:

Honda, Acura cars hit by Y2K22 bug that rolls back clocks to 2002:

The report starts with: "Honda and Acura cars have been hit with a Year 2022 bug, aka Y2K22, that resets the navigation system's clock to January 1st, 2002, with no way to change it."

True? Yes, it seems to be true.

A well known issue is related to the year 2038: Year 2038 problem

Many other time formatting and storage bugs!! 

Use the time you have in 2022 to spent more of it for or with your family, friends, ... stay safe in 2022!

Happy new year! 

Lesson learned: Don't expect that more automation, more programs, more smart phones, ... give you any additional time in your life! I guess they will consume a lot of your free time to find and fix bugs of many kinds ...