Deployment is surging across the country for distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems, as well as electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. These assets, known as DERs, can benefit the electric grid and co-op consumers by shaving loads during times of high demand, reducing energy bills, and keeping the lights on amid power outages.
But DERs and EV charging infrastructure introduce new cybersecurity challenges for electric co-ops. Depending on who owns and operates these assets, a co-op may have limited visibility into the systems running on its own grid, whether that is a vendor managing a charging network through a remote platform, a solar developer with remote access to inverters under contract or a member’s EV communicating with an automaker’s cloud.
NRECA has been working with Sandia National Laboratories on Department of Energy-funded research to understand where co-ops stand in this area and what they can do about it.
On this episode of Along Those Lines, we’ll look at how co-ops can manage these emerging challenges, gathering perspectives from Carter Manucy, NRECA’s senior director of cybersecurity, and Cooper Cash, vice president of IT operations for North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives.
Listen to the episode below:
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