System Architecture

Smoke Signals from the Energy Architecture workshop

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I am not at the smart grid high level architecture workshop this week as Southern California Edison. Its members may be sworn to secrecy, or exhausted from long work, but are letting nothing out. The mere fact they are meeting, though, has caused numerous others to discuss the interface between the building/home/industry and grid, what we are starting to cal X2G.

Three of the most prominent pre-standard specifications...

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Pervasive Security and Control Systems

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With cybersecurity so much in the news, I found myself in a heated discussion the other day about whether IT should take over SCADA, and in particular SCADA security, or whether it should not. SCADA (System Control And Data Acquisition) refers to the technologies that run large processes. In common use, it refers primarily to the large distribution systems, such as those for electricity, water, and gas. SCADA systems were usually designed to operate with the extreme resource constraints of last generation technology. SCADA systems have traditionally been secured primarily through isolation. Any signal that breached the outer shell was considered trusted.

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IP Everywhere, or Just About

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In February, a new administration official stated that the smart grid requires "IP everywhere", stirring considerable concern among the dumbest (in terms of grid smarts) of the smart grid players. Earlier this month, as I wrote of in The Impulse to Run Around Naked, a maker of building systems asked why we don’t just build systems with their own native languages and their own "most optimal" media. The operators of the big distribution systems (SCADA) for electricity, water, sewage, and natural gas are all a-twitter over the proposed national cyber-security directorate. This agitation in those that manage the actions of the built world is based upon misunderstandings based upon poor definitions as much as anything else.

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The Impulse to Run Around Naked

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We were discussing the proposed Energy Market Information Exchange (EMIE) Technical Committee last week when a participant asked "What’s wrong with having devices communicate in their own native languages and over their most optimal media?"

At its heart, this query is a request to let first costs equipment trump all other concerns. It ignores cost of ownership. It ignores the costs of security. It even ignores initial integration costs. It is a naïve plea for a simpler world.

When they were young, I remember my children regularly escaping after the evening bath and scampering through the house.

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