Re: The Smart Grid and Cybersecurity

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>
Date: April 12, 2009 2:54:09 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, Peter Swire <peter () peterswire net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    The Smart Grid and Cybersecurity


This "smart grid" thing confuses me.  It seems like it looks at our  
power systems mainly from the distribution point of view and not a  
synoptic generation-distribution-consumption view.

It strikes me that "smart" should mean better feedback loops  
throughout the total system so that consumption, distribution, and  
generation can all interact.   And that at the consumption end should  
contain open (but protected) API's so that over time even household  
and office appliances can become part of the system.

And it also strikes me that one should design that system using hints  
rather than mandatory commands, else we risk a system that might be  
brittle when stressed.  Living as I do in Santa Cruz, California the  
events of this past week demonstrate that the brittleness of our  
existing systems is more than merely hypothetical.

When I say hints rather than commands I am referring to something that  
we've learned from the internet, which is that that the effect of  
actions (everything from packet TTLS to ARPs to routing advertisements  
to DNS cache entries) is that many, perhaps most, control and command  
mechanisms should fade back to a default state if not refreshed.

A good step has already been taken by appliances and office machines  
that drop back to reduced power modes when not used for a while.  But  
good a step as it is, there are more steps we could take:

When I look at my own power consumption I see that a non-trivial part  
is flexible - I need the power sometime but the particular time is  
alterable.  Because I pay different amounts for power based on the  
time-of-day and day-of-week I have manually moved some of our power  
consumption to the wee hours.

With the increased deployment of battery powered automobiles we may  
see an even greater shift of this nature.

What I'm wondering is these things:

 1. Couldn't my appliances interact with my power company so that  
those appliances could optionally run when doing so best fits with  
power availability?  In that way some of the peaks of demand could be  
lowered and some of the valleys filled in.

 I can readily foresee that if we do not do this that we will have a  
future in which we will have a new evening peak as people come home  
from work and plug in their rechargeable automobiles.  Of course some  
people might want to recharge sooner rather than later and they should  
have that option but at the cost of foregoing a reduced rate for the  
power.

 I can visualize a relatively simple design in which home devices  
interact with a home controller over a typical home network.  That  
home controller could then maintain an protected, mutually  
authenticated session with the power company via the internet.

I suggest this two tier approach because I perceive the home  
controller as really being the master in the home or office.  And I  
further perceive that home controller as using openly defined network  
(IPv4 or IPv6) based API's and protocols such that that device could  
be built by anyone willing to honor those API's and protocols.  That  
way people who are concerned about privacy, or public interested  
minded people, could buy (or build) units that they trust and avoid  
ones they do not trust.

 This kind of system could be induced not by mandate but by offering  
rate incentives to consumers.  And if network APIs and protocols were  
sufficiently well defined I'm sure that the innovative energies of  
many of our underemployed technical minds will fill in the gaps with  
intriguing devices.

 It also struck me this kind of thing would also be amenable to some  
of the credit-trading that has gone one in big-industry for years.  
Power consumers that are able to do agile time shifting of their  
demand might be able to sell some sort of credits to high consumption  
consumers that are not able to time shift their demands.

 2. Perhaps it is time to update our building codes so that new and  
substantially remodeled homes and offices will have a standard DC  
distribution system that could obviate the huge number of power- 
wasting "bricks" that are starting to take over our home wall outlets.

As I write this I am reminded that much of the US enjoys something  
that is foreign to some of us here in Santa Cruz - reliable power.

                --karl--





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