Tri-Cities lab believes its pilot-like mock scenarios could help avoid blackouts


Power-grid operators now have the ability to train like pilots, with simulators that provide faulty readings designed to throw them off. Such misleading data and the resulting loss of situational awareness were identified as major factors in an August 2003 blackout that cost the country billions of dollars.


Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in Richland, Wash., have developed a simulator-based, hands-on training curriculum that seeks to help grid operators recognize bad information due to instrument failure or malicious hacking, PNNL says. They earlier were surprised to learn from vendors that training simulators currently used by the electrical-transmission industry werent being adapted as a standard industry practice for such mock event scenarios.


Areva T&D, one provider of transmission and distribution products, including grid simulator software, agreed to work with PNNL to create scenarios for the simulation of misleading, false data, PNNL says. Now, it says, its possible to insert false data intentionally and to manipulate grid conditions to create plausible bad-information situations. PNNL researchers are able to study the response of operators dealing with conflicting or bad data both before and after they receive training.


Weve seen how undetected faulty readings can cause the electrical system to crash, just like they can cause a plane to crash, says Jeff Dagle, an electrical engineer involved in the project. However, pilots are trained to cross-check their instruments by comparing pertinent information from each to their mental model of the big picture.


The hands-on training curriculum developed at PNNL, he says, can do the same thing for the nations power-grid operators when they drill emergency scenarios.


Dagle talked about the software, curriculum, and the need for mock emergency simulations at a trade-group meeting in Montreal last month.


To demonstrate the new curriculum, PNNL asked seasoned operators from the Bonneville Power Administration to participate in a pilot-training class. Simulations included malfunctioning instruments or fake signals sent by hackers to get a baseline response. Then, operators received training on cyber security and awareness of the threats hackers can pose to the grid, which was followed up with another shift in the simulator.


We found that once operators became aware of the very real potential for bad information, they were better able to come up with new courses of action and troubleshoot faster when confronted with a situation that could lead to widespread power outages, Dagle says.


Researchers, however, found that the responses of operators varied significantly, indicating that more rigorous training would provide a standardized approach for emergencies involving compromised data.


PNNL says such operator training could be enhanced by its new Integrated Energy Operations Center, a research facility for energy operations technology development and demonstration. The center replicates a control-room environment, with functional energy management system software, live grid data, and other industry-specific tools.


PNNL employs 4,200 people, has an annual budget of more than $725 million.