What do you get when you combine IEEE, INL, and resilience? A bunch of my favorite things and.... Resilience Week 2021!
Resilience Week is a IEEE conference hosted annually by Idaho National Laboratory, often in conjunction with other related events. Resilience Week 2021 was hosted virtually, so I didn't get the full experience my first time attending, but I still appreciated the opportunity to participate, especially because the core topic, resilience, has been such a key part of my research at INL.
I presented my paper, A Cyber‐Resilience Risk Management Architecture for Distributed Wind, which stems from my work on the Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad (MIRACL) project. The physical and communications requirements for distributed wind mean that there are unique cybersecurity considerations, but there is little to no existing guidance on best practices for cybersecurity risk management for distributed wind systems specifically. This paper develops an architecture for managing cyber risks associated with distributed wind systems through resilience functions. The architecture takes into account the configurations, challenges, and standards for distributed wind to create a risk-focused perspective that considers threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences. We show how the resilience functions of identification, preparation, detection, adaptation, and recovery can mitigate cyber threats. We discuss common distributed wind architectures and interconnections to larger power systems. Because cybersecurity cannot exist independently, the cyber-resilience architecture must consider the system holistically. Finally, we discuss risk assessment recommendations with special emphasis on what sets distributed wind systems apart from other distributed energy resources (DER).
I was also honored and excited to be asked to be on a panel for the first time. This panel had representatives from three renewable energy program offices of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office to present their perspectives from program manager and representative project leads on adapting the nation’s grid to renewable energy while maintaining safety, security and resilience of the system. Program managers and leads from each Wind Energy, Water Power, and Solar Power Technology Offices presented key approaches to resilient outcomes on the road to green‐house gas reduction in the energy sector.
A synopsis of the panelists and topics: The Wind Energy Technologies Office has invested in research to enable wind, as a distributed energy resource (DER), to support the resiliency of electric energy delivery systems and the communities they supply through the development of resilience metrics which can be applied to evaluate the resilience of the distribution grid and how distributed wind can be used to enhance resilience. Bret Barker will discuss the breadth of their work from rapidly deployable wind turbines for disaster response to advanced and adaptive controls for hybrid and microgrid systems. He will be joined by Megan Culler of Idaho National Laboratory who will discuss two a recently published papers Resilience Framework for Electric Energy Delivery Systems and Distributed Wind Resilience Metrics for Electric Energy Delivery Systems which can be used for evaluating and enhancing resilience. The Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) invests broadly in resilience to ensure that the US will have resilient water and electric systems for years to come. Hill Balliet will outline WPTO’s resilience portfolio from cybersecurity to hydropower hybrids and discuss future areas of work. He will be joined by Abhishek Somani of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who will go into detail about his work on the role of hydropower in grid resilience. The Solar Energy Technologies Office has invested in research to better utilize solar and other distributed resources to enhance the resiliency of the grid through advanced controls and better situational awareness of the distribution system. David Walter will discuss the history of their work from microgrid controls to adaptive protection schemes and where the office plans to go in the future. He will be joined by Ben Ollis of Oak Ridge National Laboratory who will discuss a recently funded project that is connecting community level microgrids in Puerto Rico in an effort to enhance the region’s ability to survive high impact events.
Great opportunity to share some of my research work, and I hope to attend next year in person for the full experience!