Southern Company Services to lead digital twin for cyber resilience project

The US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Office of Electricity has selected Alabama-based Southern Company Services to lead a $2.4 million digital twin project focusing on the research, development and demonstration of advanced distribution communication and control technologies.

The project, titled ‘Cognitive digital twin for the development of secure and resilient smart grid cyber-physical systems’, will enhance the security of the electric distribution system, especially in preventing, detecting and responding to disruptions in critical information flows.

As grid communication demands and information security risks rise, modernising grid communications systems with integrated security becomes essential.

According to the DoE in a release, digital twins will play a key role in this modernisation, enabling utilities to understand weaknesses, detect problems quickly and address them effectively without risking the operational grid.

In this way, the Southern Company Services’ digital twin project is hoped to improve grid security and reliability, translating into fewer blackouts and outages for consumers as well as fewer power disruptions that affect critical services like hospitals, emergency response systems and public transportation.

In a DoE release, they add the benefit of operational efficiency for consumers, as the results of the project will mean less time and money spent by utilities on responding to grid disruptions.

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The Southern Company’s Schatz Grid Visualisation and Analytics Centre will house the project. The centre develops preoperational situational awareness technologies to advance the adoption and integration of new power delivery processes, tools and protocols.

Other project partners include the Virginia Tech Power and Energy Center, GE Research, and OPAL-RT Corporation.

Commenting in a release was Gene Rodrigues, assistant secretary for the Office of Electricity: “This project will improve the reliability, resilience and security of the electric grid and lessons learned will provide insights on how electric utilities can adopt digital twins to better understand, protect and operate their systems as the grid transforms.

“[The Office] is excited to enter this next stage of our collaborative relationship with a leading electric utility.”

Funding award is contingent upon completion of successful negotiations.