Building a National Smart Grid

In the Democrat's version of the Green New Deal the second objective of the plan, right behind only using renewable energy sources for the nations's power demand, is

building a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid;

It's widely recognized that terrorists could use our power grid as a weapon simply by hacking in. Maybe they simply turn power off to millions of people putting them at the mercy of the weather or maybe they set a nuclear power plant to melt down. The power grid is at risk and security of the grid has to be a main concern. That being said, we have to be smart about it so as not to open more avenues to allow the terrorists to control the grid.

Take for instance a simple door lock on your front door. Anyone inside the house can simply unlock the door and make it accessible while anyone on the outside would require a key or break the door down. Either way the person has be physically be at the door. Now upgrade that simple lock to an electronic lock you can operate from a cell phone. This makes the door susceptible to anyone in the world with a computer, the expertise and the desire to unlock the door.

Congress actually started funding this work with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Since then hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested by our government along with private companies to enhance our power grid. A number of case studies can be found here.

Although these papers offer glowing praise of the potential for a smart grid, some also point to the lack of definition of what a smart grid encompasses. Think in terms of remodeling a room in your house, you wouldn't call a contractor in and say "Here it is, remodel it!". There needs to be definition on what is desired or needed in a smart grid to ensure the money is used to provide what can be considered a smart grid rather than making the grid more susceptible to terrorists attacks.

Here's a quote from a case study from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA):

Cyber security for smart grid projects has never before been addressed in a systematic way. Implementing these new technologies , tools, and techniques safely calls for “how to” manuals that provide step by step directions for addressing vulnerabilities and protecting components and systems from deliberate attacks or user errors.

In other words, there needs to be more planning before we start making changes. If we are going to dump billions of dollars into building a smart grid, shouldn't we have an standard for what a smart grid is comprised of? We have codes for almost any kind of construction. If we are building a house the design of the walls is established, the electrical and plumbing systems have requirements that must be adhered to. But in this case we are starting to implement a relatively vague idea without having the requirements fully spelled out. It's like putting the cart before the horse.

This is a area of developing technology so it's understandable that a full set of codes wouldn't be established. However something as important as the security of our national power grid shouldn't be put together in a haphazard manner. A team of electrical power experts, cyber security experts and other specialists should develop a full description of what a smart grid actually means. As new technologies are developed, this description (or code) can be modified so that everyone stays on the same page. Without such an effort our national grid will be a disjointed bunch of wires and equipment that only work together in regional areas.