Josh Corbitt of Origis Energy Services will discuss the Cybersecurity Toolset to Improve Solar Asset Security at RE+ 24 in Anaheim, CA.  

Poster Topic: Cybersecurity Toolset to Improve Solar Asset Security 

Location:
Posters will be located on Level 2 of the Anaheim Convention Center, in the hallway between Rooms 202 and 210.  

Poster Room Appearance:
September 10, 10:30 am 

Poster Synopsis: 
At 5% of the U.S. electricity mix, with projections for massive acceleration of clean electricity in the future, the need to advance measures to protect the solar cyber-physical systems is of utmost importance. 

Inverter based power plants risk cybersecurity and ransomware attacks. As renewable energy sites deliver increasingly robust generation and resiliency services, state sponsored, or Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) will become more prevalent. What are the range of planning, technological and workforce solutions to protect our growing fleet of solar and energy storage assets? This poster is a visualization of the range of current and potential tools for solar and BESS security.

The SEIA, Wood Mackenzie 2023 US Solar Market Insight reported the US solar industry installed 32.4 gigawatts-direct current (GWdc) of capacity last year. This growth accounted for 53 percent of all new capacity in the US. At 5 percent of the U.S. electricity mix, with projections for massive acceleration of clean electricity in the future, the need to advance measures to protect these cyber-physical systems is of utmost importance. Similarly, energy storage capacity doubled in 2023 to 7.9 GW connected to the grid. These systems provide important energy resiliency, emergency response and availability services. Cyberattacks on this grid level operation technology (OT) equipment can cause physical damage, diminish availability, compromise data, affect local grid equipment and potentially cause safety and health hazards.

Engineering secured solar assets i.e. inverter-based power plants is a multi-level endeavor involving a range of potential AI, data science, IoT and digital technologies coupled with the human expertise to plan, deploy, interpret and action the information. This poster outlines the current and projected tools to aid cybersecurity initiatives on utility-scale solar plants. 

More information about this event 

Cybersecurity Toolset to Improve Solar Asset Security Flyer