Approximately a year ago, the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) recently released version 1 of its CEA Guideline for the Selection and Use of SMART GRID Standards and revised it in June 2011. The 8 page document contains eight fundamental principles and fifteen elective criteria to provide their members (predominantly electric utilities) guidance in picking the right standards to use when modernizing Canada’s electrical grid.

IDC is preparing a conference event in Brisbane, Australia March 21-22, 2012 that promises an opportunity to network with your peers and learn more about the latest happenings in this exciting and growing field.

The objective of this forum is to outline the best practice in designing, installing, commissioning and troubleshooting industrial data communications systems.

Here we go, the most challenging of all steps is the first one so I will start safe (baby steps concept) by sharing with you the topics I hope to cover in this blog:

This just in from our friends at ARC. While Wurldtech may be getting its ducks in a row to lead on cybersecurity for the smart grid, that could be an overnight success several years in the making.

According to ARC, in a release dated today:

In a report published June 12th, Register.com's Dan Goodin reports, "The newfangled meters needed to make the smart grid work are built on buggy software that's easily hacked, said Mike Davis, a senior security consultant for IOActive. The vast majority of them use no encryption and ask for no authentication before carrying out sensitive functions such as running software updates and severing customers from the power grid. The vulnerabilities, he said, are ripe for abuse."

We received this press release this morning from GE Energy. While we applaud GE and its customer for being in the forefront of Smart Grid technology, we continue to wonder, reading the release, where the security provisions come in.

GE Helps the United Kingdom Meet its Goal of Placing Smart Grid Technology in Every Home by 2020

Trial Project Brings Together the Technology and Resources of GE Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy for Smart Meter Home Study

I received this press release this morning:

GE Advocates for Standards to Promote Security, Interoperability and Innovation at Meeting Led by U.S. Energy Secretary and Commerce Secretary

How much is automation going to matter to the recovery from this economic meltdown? We know the answer, and it is, "we matter plenty."

It appears that the US Administration also knows the answer. Yesterday, Vice President Biden and Secretary of Commerce (and former Washington State Governor) Gary Locke, toured the ABB transformer plant in Jefferson City, Mo., and made some important announcements about automation and the Smart Grid.

Here's the press release that ABB sent out this morning:

This morning, an interview with Jon Wellinghoff, the new chairman of FERC appears in Salon magazine, The man has big plans.  Making them happen is a whole 'nother thing.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that there are spies in the grid and hackers, too. Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

But really, we already knew this, and the fact that the WSJ and other mainstream media are beginning to report and ask the questions more intelligently is a big win.

Here's the lede from the article: