In 2015, IBM began its journey into the realm of blockchain. Realizing quickly that the technology would make way for a significantly new manner of communication and trust, the organization worked feverishly to partner Hyperledger Foundation. Hyperledger announced the production-ready version of Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 in July of 2017. Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 benefited from the contribution of 159 developers from 28 organizations – built by the enterprise community, for the enterprise community. Hyperledger’s Technical Steering Committee drove community involvement and contribution in line with the needs of enterprise adoption, enabling modularity, scalability, and consensus for production networks…IBM was a part of this committee.
IBM now provides a blockchain platform, blockchain services, and ecosystem support for organizations that are looking to develop and deploy their own blockchain solutions. Currently, IBM Blockchain has been chosen by some of the world’s largest enterprises for production use. These organizations include the likes of Walmart, Maersk, Tennet Energy, and more. In addition, IBM currently hosts more than 100 enterprise scale networks and counting.
Drew Merkert - Department of Energy Hybrid Cloud Account Leader
Jocelyne Dittmer - Design Lead for IBM Garage
Kurt Bodden - User Experience Designer
Jorge Gonzalez Orozco - Blockchain Solution Architect
Neil Gerber - Director of New Energy & Environments
Jeff Tennenbaum - Office of the Federal CTO, Blockchain Solution Architect
Keyauri Kendrick - Hybrid Cloud Platform Technical Specialist
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit, international organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, affordability, health, safety, and the environment. EPRI also provides technology, policy, and economic analyses to drive long-range research and development planning and supports research in emerging technologies. Formed after a historic U.S. blackout in 1965, EPRI was created in response to a growing dependence on electricity and the lack of unified planning and research to support the industry. EPRI meets traditional and emerging challenges with technological innovation, thought leadership, and technical expertise.
With deep research experience and knowledge across the industry, EPRI can contribute to this project through its cyber security and blockchain research programs.
EPRI’s Utility Blockchain Interest Group (UBIG) is a collaborative, utility-focused interest group that leverages EPRI’s subject matter expertise to uncover challenges, benefits, and the potential role of blockchain in the electricity industry. It uses a collaborative approach to accelerate industry learning and applications by sharing use cases, lessons learned, and developing best practices.
EPRI’s Cyber Security for Generation Assets research includes fossil generation assets, renewable generation assets, and generation interdependencies by ensuring secure generation while maintaining reliability and efficiency. EPRI’s research addresses the specific considerations associated with existing and new generation assets and other critical infrastructure sector’s interfaces with generation.
The program’s research supports protecting assets from a cyber attack, detecting attacks and compromises, and response and recovery efforts.
Research is found at the application level, including implementing field guides and trainings, and at the foundational level which addresses the changing threat landscape, utility processes, and emerging technologies. One example of applied research includes developing a hardware based secure remote access software suite. The integrated solution manages the secure identity provisioning and applies industry cyber security best practices to authenticate and access OT systems.
Building on over 100 years of technology innovation, Hitachi America, Ltd. Research & Development Division brings together some of the world’s greatest minds to research and innovate for a better future. We have collaborated with business and research leaders worldwide to address industry and social issues, creating next-generation solutions that make the planet a safer, smarter, healthier and more secure place.
Hitachi America, Ltd. will be the industry partner, providing industry feedback to technologies to be invented under the project. Our following experiences can contribute to this mission:
Energy Web Foundation (EWF) is a global nonprofit organization accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of blockchain and decentralized technologies. EWF was co-founded in 2017 by globally respected energy think-and-do tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and noted blockchain developer Grid Singularity (GSy), along with a cohort of 10 founding member companies including Shell, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Engie, and Sempra Energy.
EWF develops open-source, blockchain-based digital infrastructure and software development toolkits specifically for the energy sector to help utilities and grid operators develop new digital solutions for IoT device connection, green attribute tracking, electric vehicle charging, flexibility and grid balancing, and asset and data authentication.
EWF’s global consortium of Members Includes energy companies, utilities, grid operators, startups, and software developers including Exelon Corporation, Austrian Power Grid, Pacific Gas & Electric, the Australian Energy Market Operator, Electrobras, the SunSpec Alliance, Vodafone, Wipro, Vestas, and 3Degrees.
In June 2019 EWF and its Members deployed the Energy Web Chain ,a public, Proof-of-Authority blockchain specifically designed for enterprise applications in the energy sector. The EW Chain is the first public network to feature large energy corporates (including Fortune 100 utilities and energy companies) alongside innovative startups as validator nodes. To date, we count more than 25 established companies hosting validator nodes across 15 countries spanning 18 time zones.
EWF’s primary business focus is customizing and deploying its open-source software stack, the Energy Web Decentralized Operating Systemto help electric utilities and grid operators unlock business value in the context of a rapidly changing energy sector.
To learn more visit energyweb.org
Founded in 2012, DERP TECH (d.b.a. Resilient Power Works!) began working on the novel design of microgrid controls that feature both supervisory and dynamic controls and are capable of operating both in front of (utility-side) and in back of the meter (consumer-side). After Hurricane Sandy hit, DERP TECH became involved in Connecticut’s vanguard work to harden the State’s grid – and the firm provided Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) expertise and was awarded one of the first 8 microgrids; our firm also provided the project management and the successful grant work needed to procure $750,000 from the State for initial activity through the host city.
This microgrid design was for public safety – it was for an American Red Cross sheltering location for evacuees, where 4,000 people would be sent in the event of either a severe storm or a "plume event" at a nearby nuclear power plant along the Atlantic Coast. We worked closely with the local utility.
DERP TECH is working collaboratively with the National Energy Technology Lab (NETL), which is a federal lab, operated by DoE, historically focused on fossil fuels; specifically, we are working with the HyPer Lab in Morgantown, West Virginia. We are hard at work developing advanced power controls – both supervisory and dynamic -- for hybrid powered generating systems and designing hybrid-powered microgrids that will be installed at the secondary bus of a distribution substation.
Accordingly, with our system-level control platform, we consider safety and cyber-security being of the utmost importance. If the bulk grid should fail, and our hybrid power microgrids are the primary source of power for critical loads, they cannot be compromised. So it is our pleasure to participate in, as well as contribute to, the BLOSEM Project. And we welcome strategic alliances.
This year, DERP TECH adopted a "d.b.a." (doing business as)– Resilient Power Works!
Rimation Inc. is a custom solutions engineering firm that provides technology design, human-computer interface studies, technology integration services, and end-use solutions ranging from embedded electronics, application software, to cutting edge innovations like hydrogen power systems and blockchain/distributed ledger technologies. Our solutions have been integrated in a variety of applications and industries, including a load forecasting software platform in the energy sector. Our expertise in a wide range of disciplines have led to the development of Lattice Energy™, a modular “Energy Internet” software suite capable of revealing hidden energy insights and holistically increasing energy flexibility while providing economic benefits to all involved stakeholders.
Jason Lin currently leads Rimation as the Chief Engineer. Previously, Jason served as the CTO of a building energy management software startup and spearheaded its $1.05MM portfolio of blockchain-related transactive energy and demand response platforms. Jason has published research papers on peer-to-peer transactive energy market mechanisms and blockchain-based smart contracts and given guest lectures at universities around the world.
Rimation Inc. is proud to serve as an industry partner for DOE’s BLOSEM project. We offer our technical expertise and feedback on use cases, design architectures, and evaluation metrics for BLOSEM, Blockchain for Optimized Security and Energy Management.
Contact us to learn more!
For more information visit www.cmu.edu.
An Edison International company, Southern California Edison (SCE) is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of approximately 15 million via 5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California. SCE has provided electric service in the region for 135 years.
SCE is modernizing the electric grid to support California’s transition to a clean energy future that meets the expectations of our customers and reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
SCE is also developing and implementing cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies to secure the electricity grid and protect customer data. SCE’s highly skilled and trained engineers continually study, evaluate and prioritize the utility’s resources and infrastructure to keep the grid safe and reliable and to mitigate security risks.
For more information visit www.westpoint.edu.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was founded in 1901 and is now part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories. Congress established the agency to remove a major challenge to U.S. industrial competitiveness at the time—a second-rate measurement infrastructure that lagged behind the capabilities of the United Kingdom, Germany, and other economic rivals.
From the smart electric power grid and electronic health records to atomic clocks, advanced nanomaterials, and computer chips, innumerable products and services rely in some way on technology, measurement, and standards provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Today, NIST measurements support the smallest of technologies to the largest and most complex of human-made creations—from nanoscale devices so tiny that tens of thousands can fit on the end of a single human hair up to earthquake-resistant skyscrapers and global communication networks.
For more information visit www.ieee.edu.
Annabelle is the Chief Cyber Security Specialist at Nevermore Security. She is a consultant focusing on cyber security for the energy sector. Her areas of expertise include cyber security:
Annabelle participates as a Technical Advisor for the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), serves on the research advisory committee for several of the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, and participates in IEEE standards committees. Annabelle worked with the United States Energy Association (USEA) to enhance the ability of Black Sea and Balkan region utilities to address cyber security. She developed a risk management and risk analysis strategy template and a cyber security strategy template for the utilities. In addition, she conducted Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) assessments with several of the utilities. Annabelle was one of the original authors of the DOE C2M2 and is now participating in the revision of the document. Annabelle is currently working on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is focusing on cyber security and cryptography. She is also participating on an IEEE standards committee that is developing a standard on distributed ledger technology.
