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The Department released the July 2012 issue of the ARRA Energy Assurance Planning Bulletin (EAPB). The ARRA EAPB is issued quarterly to provide information on energy assurance planning resources, upcoming events, training opportunities, and important grant deliverable dates. This is the eleventh issue of the EAP Bulletin; previous issues are available for download.

New Tool Available to Enable Electric Utilities to Better Assess their Cybersecurity Needs and Assets

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has released “Cybersecurity for State Regulators,” a primer that explains conceptual cybersecurity basics and points to additional resources that can help regulators develop internal cybersecurity expertise, ask questions of their utilities, engage in partnerships with the public and private sector to develop and implement cost-effective cybersecurity, and begin to explore the integrity of their internal cybersecurity practices. 

The Department of Energy will hold peer reviews for the Real Time Reliability Management program and the Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems (CEDS) program this summer.

Peer reviews are an opportunity for energy sector stakeholders to hear updates on ongoing and upcoming projects, provide feedback to program managers, and network with experts from industry, academia, and national laboratories.

The Electricity Subsector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model, which allows electric utilities and grid operators to assess their cybersecurity capabilities and prioritize their actions and investments to improve cybersecurity, combines elements from existing cybersecurity efforts into a common tool that can be used consistently across the industry.

DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), has released guidance to help utilities better understand their cybersecurity risks, assess severity, and allocate resources more efficiently to manage those risks. The Electricity Subsector Cybersecurity Risk Management Process (RMP) guideline, which provides a flexible approach to managing cybersecurity risks across all levels of the organization, was developed by a public-private sector team that was led by the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and included representatives from across the industry.

The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to leverage scientific advancements in mathematics and computation for application to power system models and software tools, with the long-term goal of enabling real-time protection and control based on wide-area sensor measurements. 

Specifically, this FOA focuses on two foundational research challenges:

Department of Energy Announces Nearly $3.2 Million to Help Consumers Better Manage Their Energy Consumption

Smart Grid Data Access Awards Will Demonstrate How Consumers and Communities Can Benefit from Better Energy Information 

The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability will hold its bi-annual peer review of the Smart Grid Research and Development Program on June 7-8, 2012. More than 30 projects will be presented at San Diego Gas & Electric’s Energy Innovation Center. A draft agenda and online registration are available.

Assistant Secretary Patricia Hoffman appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power on May 9, 2012 to speak about the Department of Energy's emergency authority under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and the proposed legislation intended to address the use of this authority and potential conflicts with other Federal, state and local laws and regulations.

The complete statement is available for download.