acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Researchers Work to Make Future Smart Grid Safe and Secure


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
smart grid

Credit: IBM

Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers led by Bruce McMillin are using cybersecurity techniques to prevent attackers on a future power network from causing disruptions that could disable portions of the future smart grid.

Missouri S&T is one of seven member universities of the U.S. National Science Foundation's FREEDM Systems Center, which is researching developing a smart grid.

"We're looking at what an attacker could do to the physical side of the system to compromise security," says Missouri S&T student Tom Roth.

The FREEDM Systems Center is creating an "Internet for energy" that will "transform the power industry in a similar way that the Internet transformed the computer industry from the mainframe computer paradigm to the distributed computing we have today," according to the FREEDM Web site. The project is based on distributed grid intelligence, a key component for making a smart grid work.

Other Missouri S&T researchers are developing computing simulations that McMillin's team will use as a testing ground for the cybersecurity algorithms. The researchers also must study how a simulated network would interact with devices, such as distributed renewal energy resources and devices that consume power.

From Missouri S&T News 
View Full Article

Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc. External Link, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account