by Eric Thibodeau, Hydro Quebec, Quebec, Canada
The IEEE PES Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC) met jointly y with the Power Systems Relaying and Control Committee (PSRCC) for its Spring meeting in Portland, OR from May 12 to 15, 2025. This was a hybrid event for the PSCCC as the committee provide teleconference support to all its subcommittees and groups.
Another leadership transition occurred within our committee at the May meeting. We warmly thank Mohammad Reza Khalgani for his support to the PSCCC in the role for Technical Committee Program Chair (TCPC) over the past two years. Coordinating the review of technical papers for the PSCCC is no small task, and he assured in his role. In turn, we lucky to welcome Nirmal Nair as our new TCPC.
The PSCC Main Committee continued to honor its long-term members that have now retired or walked away from the power systems industry. Two new Emeritus members were nominated at the May meeting: Anthony Johnson and Ed Cenzon. They both provided significant contributions to the activities of our committee. It was an immense pleasure to collaborate with both. We will sure miss them now they moved on to their new lives. We wish them farewell and hope we will see them around in the future.
Our Main Committee also took the opportunity of this meeting to welcome new members among those who did significantly attend and contribute to our activities over the last couple of years: Dave Dolezilek, Jalal Gohari, and Nicholas Kraemer. We are proud to bring new brains in to improve our group and hope they will stick around with us for several years to come.
The May meeting was the occasion to distribute the 2024 PSCC Awards. The Outstanding Technical Report went to TR103 – IT/OT Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Cyber Resiliency For Utilities published in October 2023. Theo Laughner and Brian Smith led this activity. The Oustanding Standard or Guide Award went to IEEE Std 1686-2022 – Standard for Intelligent Electronic Devices Cybersecurity Capabilities. Marc Lacroix and your humble servitor oversaw this working group. Congratulations to all the contributors who participated in these documents.
The P0 subcommittee announced that the long-awaited revision of IEEE Std 1815 – Standard for Electric Power Systems Communications – Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) will soon go to ballot. This behemoth standard, close to 800 pages, underwent an impressive revision by working group P2 and the DNP Technical committee. In the same vein, S0 subcommittee announced that IEEE Std 1686-2022 Corrigendum 1 (Standard for Intelligent Electronic Devices Cybersecurity Capabilities) will also go to ballot. In contrast, its eleven pages will sure be quicker to review for the ballotters. On the new business side, F0 subcommittee announced that they are starting to work on a corrigendum for IEEE Std 1591.1 – Standard for Testing and Performance of Hardware for Optical Ground Wire (OPGW).
Our committee is always searching for new contributors. Like announced in our last column, our Wire Line Subcommittee (E0) is still in need for new leadership. This subcommittee scope covers the use of all forms of wire line communication systems found in substations or may be subject to the influence of electric power or lightning. We encourage all who have knowledge or expertise in that field and are eager to step in to contact one of the PSCCC officers.
The PSCCC still has one meeting to come this year. This one will again be a joint with the PSRCC, from September 8 to 11, 2025 in Richmond, VA. The PSCCC meetings will again be in hybrid format, with both virtual and in-person attendance.
More information about the September meeting 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.
