UL cybersecurity document targets inverter-based resources on the grid

UL Solutions said it published UL 2941, the Outline of Investigation (OOI) for Cybersecurity of Distributed Energy and Inverter-Based Resources. The cybersecurity document was developed in cooperation with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is intended to provide testable requirements for energy storage and generation technologies on the distribution grid.

UL 2941 includes requirements for photovoltaic inverters, electric vehicle chargers, wind turbines, fuel cells and other resources.

The requirements were announced in mid-April and prioritise cybersecurity enhancements for power systems that deal with high-penetration inverter-based resources, including those interfacing with bulk power systems for periods of instantaneous high wind, solar and hybrid/storage generation.

UL 2941 is also expected to help promote cybersecurity as a design element for new inverter-based resources and distributed energy resource systems.

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Manufacturers and vendors can use these certification requirements to provide a unified approach that can be used as a reference for performing the testing and certification of DERs before being deployed and while in the field.

Danish Saleem, senior energy systems cybersecurity engineer at NREL, said that equipment manufacturers, asset owners, regulators and government officials now have an “established baseline for strengthening the security of their devices” such as network-connected inverter-based resources, monitoring devices, and parts of IBR systems that provide software-based and firmware-based controls.

UL Solutions and NREL will begin using this OOI to perform testing of IBRs. Products complying with UL 2941 will be eligible for UL certification.

This testing is intended to be an optional add-on service for IBRs, complementing UL 1741, the Standard for Inverters, Converters, Controllers and Interconnection System Equipment for Use With Distributed Energy Resources.

This was originally published on Renewable Energy World.