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Livermore, Berkeley National Labs Leading Project to Increase Power Grid Cybersecurity

July 12, 2016

Contact: Jon Bashor, jbashor@lbl.gov, 510-486-5849

US power grid

US Power Grid in 2012. (Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center)

Cybersecurity experts Jamie Van Randwyk of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sean Peisert of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are leading a new program to develop new data analysis methods to better protect the nation’s power grid.

 

The project, “Threat Detection and Response with Data Analytics,” is part of a $220 million, three-year Grid Modernization Initiative launched in January 2016 by the Department of Energy to support research and development in power grid modernization.

The goal of this project is to develop technologies and methodologies to protect the grid from advanced cyber and threats through the collection of data from a range of sources and then use advanced analytics to identify threats and how best to respond to them. Specifically, the project team will be able to distinguish between power grid failures caused by cyber attacks and failures caused by other means, including natural disasters, “normal” equipment failures and even physical attacks.

In addition to LLNL and Berkeley Lab, DOE’s Idaho, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest and Sandia national laboratories are also participating in the project. To make the scientific results more realistic and more usable by the power industry, the group is also partnering with the Electric Power Board (EPB) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which will help provide data and collaborate in transferring the technology to the power industry.

The Energy Department’s Grid Modernization Initiative represents a comprehensive effort to help shape the future of our nation’s grid and solve the challenges of integrating conventional and renewable sources with energy storage and smart buildings, while ensuring that the grid is resilient and secure to withstand growing cybersecurity and climate challenges.


About Berkeley Lab

Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.