CALGARY, AB — GE Energy and SUBNET Solutions Inc., announced a collaboration last week to help improve cyber security across a smarter grid, which is inherently more open as it marries information and automation technologies with our current electrical infrastructure. Smart grid technologies aim to deliver greater productivity and efficiencies, optimize renewable energy sources and empower consumers to manage energy usage and save money.

Many smart grid experts agree on an open, standardized foundation for networking North America's next great infrastructure — the smart grid. The adoption of open technology standards has served as a catalyst for innovation, helping build remarkably interoperable foundations that drive the economy, ranging from the familiar electricity socket to the transformative information superhighway that is the internet.

Because the potential for cyber attack on the grid increases as the network becomes increasingly automated and "open," GE and SUBNET have collaborated on a robust, flexible solution enabling streamlined information access, while overcoming the security challenges inherent in open systems.

"A fundamental element for creating smarter power grids is expert use of digital and information technologies that connect utilities in real-time to all the key components of the power grid; from generation to the consumer. Today, solutions need to provide this live holistic view of the power system and meet or exceed critical cyber security requirements," said Ameen Hamdon, president of SUBNET Solutions Inc. "By combining our proven technologies with that of GE's, we are creating a best-in-class solution to provide secure real-time information access from the substation level to the enterprise."

SUBNET's software integrates with GE's D400 workstation for a new substation gateway product — the D400-S — to deliver a unified and intelligent architecture with the ability to evolve as customers' needs grow. The D400-S is compliant with NERC-CIP standards, CIP-002 through CIP-009, which provide a cyber security framework for the identification and protection of critical cyber assets to support reliable operation of the bulk electric system.

GE's D400 solution is a secure, substation-hardened gateway that collects metering, status, event and fault report data from serial or LAN-based intelligent electronic devices. SUBNET's flagship products, EnterpriseSERVER.NET, SubstationSERVER.NET and Substation Explorer, are "hardware independent" software applications that easily integrate with utilities' existing infrastructure to provide flexible and secure access to remote substation information.

"For the smart grid to be viable and safe, security measures must be taken to protect the communications networks that enable utilities to remotely control the electrical network," said Sisir Padhy, general manager for GE Energy's automation technologies. "Our collaboration with SUBNET is critical as we continue to expand our smart grid offerings. This new solution provides significant business benefits to utility customers in the United States, Canada and around the world."

For more information visit www.subnetsolutions.com or www.ge.com/energy.
 

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