by Craig Palmer, PowerComm Solutions, USA
The IEEE Power & Energy Society’s Power System Communications & Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC) met three times in-person in 2023: January in Jacksonville, FL; May in Las Vegas, NV; and September in Myrtle Beach, SC.
The meeting series schedule for 2024 is: January 7-11 in New Orleans, LA; May 13-16 in Buffalo, NY; and September 9-12 in Scottsdale, AZ.
Important note on virtual meetings for January 2024 (JTCM): to better manage virtual access and the distribution of passwords, registration for virtual meeting attendance for the JTCM meetings will cut off on January 3, 2024.
Following are some of the latest highlights from the IEEE PES PSCCC:
- Cybersecurity Subcommittee (S0): Task Force S9 of the S0 subcommittee completed its report, “Report on Utility IT/OT Challenges in Roles and Terminology.” The report provides an understanding of the gaps between IT and OT roles in power utilities and gives suggestions for resolving some of these gaps within an organization.
- S0 is looking for a working group chair for work on HTTPS and TLS Exploration. The WG looks to develop a report on the implementation of TLS for usage in legacy (e.g. SCADA) and emerging (e.g. DER) power system applications. If you have an interest in this work, please reach out to the PSCCC leadership.
- Protocols & Architecture Subcommittee (P0): Task Force P12 of the P0 subcommittee completed its report, “Report on Analog Leased Lines Withdrawal of Service”. The report discusses considerations when migrating Class-A audio-tone protection channels to another type of leased circuit. The report will be published in the upcoming months. Congrats to chair Marc Benou on completing this work!
- Wireline Subcommittee (E0): The Wireline subcommittee will go to ballot on IEEE Std P487a: Standard for the Electrical Protection of Communications Facilities Serving Electric Supply Locations — General Considerations Amendment: New Annex J- Guidance for Determining the Ground Potential Rise and Induced Voltages for the Design of Communications Installations at Electric Supply Locations.
- Call for participation: The Wireline Subcommittee of the PSCCC is responsible for studying and reviewing engineering, operational, and testing aspects of the protection and use of all forms of single and multipurpose wire line communications systems that serve electrical power stations or that are otherwise subjected to the influence of electric power or lightning. The E0 subcommittee is looking for a chair – contact PSCCC leadership if interested.
- Fiber Optic Subcommittee (F0): F0 has sent the following standard for publication: IEEE 1591.1 – Standard for Testing and Performance of Hardware for Optical Ground Wire. Congrats to F0 on this important standard! Next up is IEEE-1591.4 – Standard for Testing and Performance of Optical Phase Conductor.
- Hot topics at PSCCC: The PSCCC has several groups involved in work related to IEC-61850 and Centralized Protection & Control (CPC). If you are involved in these new technologies and looking to contribute expertise while learning from other industry experts, the IEEE PES PSCCC is a great place to be. Work is underway to investigate mapping between IEC-61850 and IEEE-1815 (DNP3), to investigate mapping between C37.118.2 and IEC-61850, to develop a beginner’s guide to IEC-61850, to revise IEC-61850-9-3-2016 (PTP profile), to develop a standard for securing GOOSE messages, and to develop a roadmap for new or existing standards to address issues related to CPC systems.
IEEE Mentoring Program: The IEEE Mentoring Program is an online program that pairs qualified IEEE members together in establishing a mentoring partnership for guidance in multiple areas such as career, education, leadership, and volunteering. The program is completely self-serve and is implemented via IEEE Collabratec® (home of the IEEE Member Directory). Participation in the program is open to all IEEE members (all grades) and Society affiliates. For more information, contact the PSCCC leadership.
To contact the PSCCC leadership, visit the PSCCC website at https://site.ieee.org/pes-pscc/. And as always, be sure to follow @IEEE_PES_PSCC on Twitter and IEEE-PES-PSCC on LinkedIn for other news and announcements from the Committee!
Biography:
Craig M. Palmer received his Bachelor of Science in Electronics & Computer Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in 2011. He has worked on power system protection and communications since then, first with RFL Electronics in Boonton, NJ. He is presently Lead Application Engineer at PowerComm Solutions, where he focuses on Power Line Carrier applications for high-speed transmission line protection schemes. He is a participant in the IEEE Power System Relaying & Control Committee (PSRC), a member of the Power Line Carrier subcommittee (C0) in the Power System Communications & Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC), present Secretary of the PSCCC, and a Senior Member of IEEE.
