This group decided to alarm everyone about hacks in the National Grid. Chinese and Russian viruses planted to take down the grid .....turns out to be a theory ....nothing more.
I spent 25 years in the Utility Industry. Manufacturing products for the "GRID". To be a part of this community, you really need to become a member of IEEE. The society of Electrical Engineers. About five years into my membership, a new committe was formed. Cyber Security ....There was a mixture of Indutry Engineers, Manufacturing and Academia .....Meeting one.....and Engineer next to me suggests that the entire grid use one communications platform for universal control ......I stood and ended that conversation quick. To understand this insanity .....
The industry is made up of approx. 196 IOU's Investor owned Utitlities ....all competitors. Add to that mix about 335 Co Opps ......They buy from the IOUs' and sell to rural or city customers. Toss in Municipals and a few State owned utilities .....Then Federal power producers. I'll cover Wind and Solar and Co-gens shortly ...... All these people are technically competitors. They must protect their systems from the guy next door. Protection relays provides the gates to protect systems. Some of these entities buy communication systems from proven providers, but use any of the mulitple lanuguages to protect themselves from their neighbors. So Commonwealth Edison (Chicago) Has no communication links to Duke Energy .....the Carolinas and southeast Florida ....Consolidated Edsion has no link to Southern California Edison.
There is no grid technically. Each Utility has acceptable ranges of power production ....120 volts, 60 hz ect. and has connections to transfer power both selling and buying. Except for Texas, Alaska and Hawaii. There is no single source to communicate, other than the internet. These connections have no input on power production, transmission or distribution. Should a person break into a power plant .....the many protection devices, operation devices and control devices are virtually impossible to break down .....The protection capability alreay exists. What is not needed is for the government to force an interconnect. Now toss in Co-Gen. Not one Wind or Solar farm is independent. They sell all production to the Utility. The myth of the 50,000 homes powered by a Wind or solar farm is a myth. The power is sold to the Utility. The Utility has to be prepared to take the loss of the power produced by a wind or solar farm. Peak shaving only works if the solar or wind farm is producing. We can go down the line and name thousands of co-gens on the system. All selling power to the utility. Bayer Aspirin, ALCOA to name a few .....
So, operating independently ......exactly what virus is there to travel through the non exisiting grid? Several Administration systems have been hacked into. They go nowhere, maye accounting .....but no one is controlling a power plant. No one controlling a transmission line.....It's all separated for a reason ...To keep the bad guys out. Any foolishness by Politicians is just that "Bad Guys being stupid."
I spent 25 years in the Utility Industry. Manufacturing products for the "GRID". To be a part of this community, you really need to become a member of IEEE. The society of Electrical Engineers. About five years into my membership, a new committe was formed. Cyber Security ....There was a mixture of Indutry Engineers, Manufacturing and Academia .....Meeting one.....and Engineer next to me suggests that the entire grid use one communications platform for universal control ......I stood and ended that conversation quick. To understand this insanity .....
The industry is made up of approx. 196 IOU's Investor owned Utitlities ....all competitors. Add to that mix about 335 Co Opps ......They buy from the IOUs' and sell to rural or city customers. Toss in Municipals and a few State owned utilities .....Then Federal power producers. I'll cover Wind and Solar and Co-gens shortly ...... All these people are technically competitors. They must protect their systems from the guy next door. Protection relays provides the gates to protect systems. Some of these entities buy communication systems from proven providers, but use any of the mulitple lanuguages to protect themselves from their neighbors. So Commonwealth Edison (Chicago) Has no communication links to Duke Energy .....the Carolinas and southeast Florida ....Consolidated Edsion has no link to Southern California Edison.
There is no grid technically. Each Utility has acceptable ranges of power production ....120 volts, 60 hz ect. and has connections to transfer power both selling and buying. Except for Texas, Alaska and Hawaii. There is no single source to communicate, other than the internet. These connections have no input on power production, transmission or distribution. Should a person break into a power plant .....the many protection devices, operation devices and control devices are virtually impossible to break down .....The protection capability alreay exists. What is not needed is for the government to force an interconnect. Now toss in Co-Gen. Not one Wind or Solar farm is independent. They sell all production to the Utility. The myth of the 50,000 homes powered by a Wind or solar farm is a myth. The power is sold to the Utility. The Utility has to be prepared to take the loss of the power produced by a wind or solar farm. Peak shaving only works if the solar or wind farm is producing. We can go down the line and name thousands of co-gens on the system. All selling power to the utility. Bayer Aspirin, ALCOA to name a few .....
So, operating independently ......exactly what virus is there to travel through the non exisiting grid? Several Administration systems have been hacked into. They go nowhere, maye accounting .....but no one is controlling a power plant. No one controlling a transmission line.....It's all separated for a reason ...To keep the bad guys out. Any foolishness by Politicians is just that "Bad Guys being stupid."
