True gridNov 09 - Lewiston Morning Tribune (ID)
Catastrophe erupts quietly on a computer in a basement laboratory of a Washington State University electrical engineering building. In a simulated power grid, cyber terrorists open software circuit breakers that leave millions of virtual people without electricity in less than a minute. As they do, four straight lines on a display screen silently turn into curves, showing an unwanted fluctuation in voltage and frequency. If it were real life, the unauthorized activity would be creating havoc. Congestion would be forming as traffic lights went out. Schools and factories would go dark. Life-sustaining equipment at hospitals would shift to generators. WSU scientists, including Chen-Ching Liu , who researches smart grid technology, want to make worst-case scenarios like this a thing of the past, whether the threat comes from a terrorist, the weather or another source. Their work recently received a huge boost. The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust donated $500,000 to WSU to upgrade a laboratory. The trust's contribution was matched by an equal amount from WSU, Avista Utilities and Itron , a manufacturer of smart meters in Spokane . That money will create a model with simulated wind mills, solar panels, fuel cells, power substations and smart meters. The upgrade will enable Liu's team to test ideas in increasingly complex scenarios and make sure they work before being deployed in the real world. "The power company would never let me into the substation and say, 'Give it a try. We'll see,' " said Liu, director of the Energy Systems Innovation Center. Already WSU has had a number of successes. Take the simulated attack that happened in the university laboratory. Ryan Sun , one of Liu's graduate students, starts the scenario again. This time, a virtual cop handcuffs the bad guys. When the intruder sends falsified data packets, Sun's software captures 497 of the 500 messages. The lines don't waver. The laboratory has also been pivotal in innovations that make the power grid more efficient on a day-to-day basis. Among them are figuring out how to do measurements that allow Avista to lower the voltage in wall outlets in Pullman , Albion and parts of Spokane . Typically the voltage in wall outlets runs anywhere from 114 to 126 volts. Appliances like ovens and clothes driers work just as well and consume less energy at the lower settings, but Avista normally sets them at the higher end of the range to be conservative. Last year, a test reduction in the standard settings saved more than 42,000 megawatt hours, the most significant benefit of smart-grid technology the utility has experimented with so far. That's enough energy savings to power 3,500 homes for a year, and the electricity conserved had an estimated value of $1.5 million , said Laurine Jue , a spokeswoman for the utility. Avista spent about $4 million installing the equipment needed, and the components are expected to last anywhere from five to 40 years. Liu sees even more possibilities and will have an improved method of testing them now. For starters, Sun will be able to find out if his software works if a cyber attack were to happen from more than one location. Liu also wants to explore big questions such as how quickly power can be restored after being hit by large-scale storms like tornados or hurricanes. Those solutions will likely involve automation because of the danger and challenge in deploying crews in wind and rain when roads are frequently closed by floods or debris. Ideally if a tree hits a line or if a line of poles is knocked out by a mud slide, the power grid would be able to detect and isolate the problem, then quickly reroute electricity around it, Liu said. "The device has to be more robust and more invulnerable with respect to water or flooding or wind or storms. They have to survive better and then you need to have more automation." Such innovation doesn't come cheap. One estimate put the cost of installing smart-grid technology nationwide in the hundreds of billions of dollars, Liu said. Figures like that make WSU's work all the more important since it can help prevent utilities from making expensive mistakes, Liu said. "Ultimately customers will pay. So any rational utility would have to think about what's the best path forward if you want to increase smart-grid technology." Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261. ___ (c)2014 the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) Visit the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) at www.lmtribune.com |