Senior Director, Principal Engineering: Industrial UL LLC
While states aim to meet their 100% renewable energy targets, it is necessary to think holistically to address the growing cybersecurity challenges facing renewable energy industry. With 100,000 times more connected devices operating autonomously, the vast majority being customer-owned grid assets, and hardware and software uncertainties for new equipment, cybersecurity for the evolving grid will be critical. A national, or international, cybersecurity certification standard can aid industry stakeholders to evaluate and validate the cybersecurity posture of their DER or IBR devices before they are connected to the electric grid. Currently, there are no cybersecurity certification requirements to which manufacturers and vendors can certify their DER and IBR devices against an established and widely adopted cybersecurity certification program. The development of certification standard requirements will provide a single unified approach for testing and certification of DERs in advance of deployment. It will help establish the principle of 'security by design' in new DER systems and will also ensure that the devices have all five pillars of cybersecurity such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, and non-repudiation. Join us to learn about the changing paradigm and why establishing a national cybersecurity certification program for DER and IBR is important. Experts from Underwriters Laboratory (UL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will share the work being done in this space, the timeline of the certification roll out, and how the UL certification can help secure DER and IBR.
