Cybersecurity

Industry responses to a Level 2 alert on contingency planning issued by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) early last month suggest the “vast majority” of registered participants in the North American bulk power system are well prepared for the COVID-19 crisis.  NERC, the interconnected bulk power system’s Electric Reliability Organization (ERO), has underscored […]

The power industry and technology worlds are filled with acronyms. It’s often hard to know what they all mean. Mark Reisig, director of Product Marketing at Aras, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He explained how digital technology is being utilized to bring products to market and track assets throughout their lifecycle. The process […]

Earlier this year, MITRE—a not-for-profit organization that works in the public interest across federal, state, and local governments, as well as with industry and academia—officially released the long-awaited industrial control systems (ICS) version of its popular ATT&CK knowledge base. ICS ATT&CK is the group’s response to the unique attack surface that industrial networks are trying […]

The terms “cloud” and “edge” are used frequently by tech-savvy power industry professionals, but what do they mean and how are they changing plant operations? To get an insider’s perspective, POWER posed the question to Akshay Patwal, strategic business manager with Siemens Energy. Patwal leads the development and commercialization of digital business transformation projects, using […]

Is your company’s information technology (IT) department your friend or your enemy? Does it work with you to identify, evaluate, and select the best new digital technology to make your job easier and your

Each year, the Connected Plant Conference, presented by POWER and Chemical Engineering, recognizes people who are in the front line of implementing digital technologies in the power and chemical process industries. This year, we congratulate the following winners of the “Game Changer” awards, who will be honored at the Connected Plant Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, […]

Given current trends, the U.S. gas turbine industry is set to play a critically important role in power generation, aircraft propulsion, and the oil and gas industry “for decades to come,” but it could benefit from prioritized research and development (R&D) and technological leadership, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and […]

Yucca Mountain, the 1987 Congressionally appointed deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel (SNF), may be officially dead; transmission assets held by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and three Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) will be put up for sale; and hundreds of millions of dollars in unobligated balances for flagship programs like the Advanced Research […]

Digitization in the power generation sector continues to expand. Its goal in simple terms—providing easy access to data for power plant operators and engineers, enabling the use of advanced analytics to improve equipment performance and efficiency—has resulted in reduced operating costs for utilities, and also has enhanced plant safety. POWER’s upcoming Connected Plant Conference, set […]

A primitive but unique ransomware variant that emerged in mid-December can forcibly stop a number of processes, including multiple items related to industrial control system (ICS) operations, industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos warned in a detailed report on Feb. 3. The ransomware known as “EKANS” (or “Snake,” which is “EKANS” spelled backwards) is “relatively straightforward” as […]