Introduction

As a core critical infrastructure, the national electric grid is at a crossroads, with modernization efforts driven by advanced cyber-system capabilities on the one hand and risks from cyber attack on the other. All stakeholders are concerned about these risks and view the need to incorporate resilience and adequate cyber security measures into the grid as crucial to all modernization efforts. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently released its policy statement [1] on smart grid technologies, which identified cyber security as one of two key priority areas.

As tasked by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is leading a major effort to develop a comprehensive framework for interoperability in smart grid. In their preliminary Roadmap for Interoperability, the development of a cyber security risk-management framework was identified as a major challenge. The ongoing roadmap to secure energy delivery systems [2] is another example of an important public/private dialogue that has identified milestones and goals for achieving resilience, such as designing, installing, operating, and maintaining control systems by 2015 that can survive an intentional cyber attack without loss of critical function. In addition, over $9 billion has been committed by the electric sector and the Department of Energy as part of ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) recovery investment efforts on modernization of the grid, with cyber security being an important focus. This investment offers opportunities and challenges in realizing a resilient electric grid for the future.