Smart Grid

Bill Gates didn’t mince words last night when sharing with the IHS CERAWeek crowd his thoughts about public support for basic scientific research in the United States.

Among the early-stage energy technology projects on display at last week’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit were two from the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) that have the potential to enhance a variety of battery and other power-related applications. POWER shot video demonstrations of these technologies, which are approximately three to five years from commercialization. See if you can figure out which one was inspired by striped toothpaste.

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced the availability of up to $20 million for the development of tools and technologies to enhance cybersecurity of delivery control systems for electricity, oil, and gas in the U.S.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) may be the most important federal agency many in the power industry have never heard of. Whatever generation technology you are associated with, ARPA-E’s work will affect its future.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday proposed four reforms intended to reduce the time and cost to process transmission interconnection requests from generating facilities of 20 MW or smaller. The reforms would boost reliability by increasing energy supply and remove hurdles in the development of new renewable power sources, FERC said.

A 2007 study sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security confirmed some of the industry’s worst fears about the grid’s vulnerability to terrorist attack. That study has remained under wraps until recently–and its findings are even worse than you may suspect.

Achieving a balance between affordable and sustainable electricity while improving reliability is a challenge unlike any the electricity sector has faced since its inception. Technology innovations in key areas such as energy efficiency, smart grid, renewable energy resources, hardened transmission systems, and long-term operation of the existing nuclear and fossil fleets are essential to shaping the future of electricity supplies.

Solar flares have proven destructive effects on transmission grids, but there are many other “black swan events” that threaten modern civilization. Experts disagree about which protective steps should be taken today.

The 12th ICS Cyber Security Conference was held at Old Dominion University’s Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) October 22–25, 2012. There were approximately 150 attendees from multiple industries, universities, government, and vendors as well as consultants from the U.S., South America, Europe, and Asia.