Securing the Electric Grid: Agile Virtualized Substations
2/20/2023
Increasingly considered a basic human right, economical electricity service relies upon high-availability grid infrastructure. Grid security must protect end-to-end service delivery—from generation through distribution. The goal of grid security is to make it prohibitively expensive to impact reliable operations or gather intelligence for coordinated advanced attacks. As intelligent hubs for the grid, substations are critical elements that pose unique security challenges.
Economic and evolving business demands have driven grid modernization through system digitalization, all without sacrificing overall mission-critical service availability. Substation security solutions must protect both from physical attacks to underlying infrastructure, such as switchgear and transformers, to cyber-attacks on digitized control and management operations. The security capabilities of these solutions need to adapt to developing threats, and that begins with a Software-Defined Substation Application Architecture built on a highly secure virtualization platform.
Business Drivers
- Society’s electricity dependence is increasing while energy source ownership and control are becoming more complex
- Evolving security regulations (e.g. FERC and NERC)
- Federal and state clean energy mandates/funding
- Increasing frequency and risk of both physical
and cyber-attacks due to growing society
dependence and economy
- Increasing connectivity and digitalization
alters attack surfaces, but dramatically
improves the intelligence of grid security
Virtualization Security Benefits
- Optimal infrastructure security from a Zero-Trust, compartmentalized, multi-layer platform
- Offers reduced infrastructure CapEx and OpEx, while increasing security
agility through automation, lifecycle management, and continuous
monitoring
- Accelerates integration of adaptive and innovative solutions for physical
security and asset cybersecurity
- Attack and breach isolation through resource virtualization under a
Zero-Trust architecture
A virtualized substation application architecture as an agile security hub for grid distribution
Key Features
- Zero-trust, multi-layer hardware and software security
- NERC CIP & NIST compliance
- Edge security administration protects data ‘at the source’
- Open ecosystem for rapid innovation
- A scalable, centralized OT/IT edge system
Real-time, synchronized operation
Rugged, certified hardware
High availability with cost-effective, flexible redundancy
Substation Security Solution
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