by Eric Thibodeau, Hydro Quebec, Quebec, Canada
The PSCCC – Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee kicked off the year 2026 in a positive fashion, hosting its meeting at the IEEE Power Energy Society (PES) Joint Technical Committee Meeting (JTCM) in Atlanta, GA from January 12 to 15. In accordance with established tradition, the PSCC continues to offer a hybrid format.
This format allows our committee to reach the largest possible audience, especially when circumstances prevent attendees from travelling. The committee extends its sincere gratitude to James Formea for his continued efforts in managing and setting up conferencing equipment, which enables the continued offering of hybrid meetings
The meeting marked Dan Nordell’s induction as the newest PSCCC Emeritus Member, honoring his longstanding contributions. Dan was the last Chair of the Power Systems Communications Committee, the predecessor to today’s PSCCC. His service played a crucial role in defining our standards and guiding the field of power system communications. His leadership and expertise inspired both seasoned members and new participants over his years of involvement.
Several of the committee’s standards received significant milestones last Fall, gaining approval from both RevCom and the IEEE Standards Association Board. Among these, IEEE 1815.2, which defines a DNP3 Profile for Distributed Energy Resources (DER), was officially published on February 5. This standard provides important guidance to improve interoperability for DER. Corrigendum 1 to IEEE 1686 Standard for Intelligent Electronic Devices Cybersecurity Capabilities is scheduled for publication on February 20. This corrigendum addresses contradictory definitions and updates references to some key cybersecurity standards.
Finally, after a complex ballot review process, IEEE 1711.1 Standard for a Cryptographic Protocol for Cyber Security of Substation Serial Links (SSPP) is expected to be released soon.
For those interested in commenting on coming standards, a few of our working groups are in or close to ballot stage. PC57.13.9 which is the Standard for Power-Line Carrier Coupling Capacitors and Coupling Capacitor Voltage Transformers is set to go to recirculation before the end of winter. The same goes for Corrigendum 1 on 1591.1-2023, Standard for Testing the Performance of Hardware for Optical Ground Wire, which should go to ballot within the same period. Finally, the ballot invitation for P1615, Recommended Practice for Network Communications in Electric Power Substations is expected to be sent out prior to our May meeting.
Important activities are also scheduled to start before we meet face to face again. The P3 Study Group was launched at the January meeting to kick off revision of 1815.1 Standard for exchanging information between IEC 61850 and DNP3. The Study Group has the mandate to establish a PAR for the project. This effort is targeting to publish the next revision of the standard as dual logo with the IEC. Our C0 subcommittee also announced its intention to begin revision of C93.3 Standard Requirements for Power-Line Carrier Line Traps. They target to prepare a PAR to be discussed and approved at our May meeting.
With an exciting program in front of us, 2026 will be a busy year for the PSCCC. Most of our working groups are having teleconferences in between our usual periodic meetings and are putting out a significant amount of work. The PSCCC will have two more occasions to regroup and assess where we stand in our standard development activities. We are scheduled to meet jointly with the PSRC in Cleveland, OH from May 11 to 14, and then in Reno, NV on September 14 to 17. The PSCCC meetings at these venues will be hybrid again.
More information about these two meetings can be found on the PSRCC website at https://www.pes-psrc.org/meetings.
To all of you who are interested in the activities of the PSCCC, please visit our website at https://site.ieee.org/pes-pscc/ and look for the “Join the PSCCC” button.
Follow @IEEE_PES_PSCC on Twitter and IEEE-PES-PSCC on LinkedIn to stay updated with our latest news and announcements!
Biography:
Eric Thibodeau is an Automation Engineer at Hydro-Québec, in the Protection Expertise team. His prior experiences include being Product Manager for Protection products at Gentec, and Software Developer specialized in communication protocols at Eaton. He is involved in the activities of the IEEE Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC) and IEEE Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRCC). Formerly, he obtained its B.Ing. in Computer Engineering, as well as M.Sc.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Universite de Sherbrooke. While a graduate student, he was also a lecturer in this same institution about network protocols specification and design, network components and architecture as well as electronic power supply design. His main areas of expertise are TCP/IP networking, SCADA communication and cybersecurity, and digital protective relaying. He is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Quebec.
