Motivation

Why Cloud?

The energy transition requires and is driving deeper IT/OT convergence and digital innovation. Cloud technology offers cost-effective ways to meet the needs. For example, the use of the cloud for managing the complexity and volume of data at scale from ever-increasing distributed energy resources (DERs) in today’s power grid demand technologies. The situation also calls for an expanded cybersecurity model to protect the grid from the risk of compromise by way of edge devices. It is thus necessary to reinvent the models and toolchains to address such emerging challenges and incorporate the advent of the cloud era to accelerate the problem-solving process.

Part of the challenge is to address the many misconceptions about the cloud that exist and to enable power system community to shift their technical understanding of on-premises settings to include cloud environments and solutions. Cloud embodies more than computing. It is an aggregation of many disruptive technologies such as IoT, AI/ML, HPC, Block Chain and Quantum Computing. The Task Force has made significant efforts to bridge the understanding of the industry operation with the real cloud capabilities. 

Critical Moves by Regulatory Bodies and Government

[1] AWS Security & Compliance, "New Compliance Guide: NERC CIP standards for BES Cyber System Information on AWS" [online] available: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/new-compliance-guide-nerc-cip-standards-for-bes-cyber-system-information-on-aws/
[2] Venturebeat, "Pentagon scraps $10B JEDI project with Microsoft, calls deal outdated" [online] available: https://venturebeat.com/2021/07/06/pentagon-scraps-10b-jedi-project-with-microsoft-calls-deal-outdated/
[3] NERC, "Security Guideline for Electricity Sector" [online] available; https://www.nerc.com/comm/RSTC_Reliability_Guidelines/Security_Guideline_BCSI_Cloud_Encryption.pdf
[4] FERC, Notice of Inquiry regarding virtualization and cloud computing, February 20, 2020, [online] available: https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/comm-meet/2020/022020/E-19.pdf
[5] FERC, 2019 Reliability Technical Conference, Docket No. AD19-13-000, June 27, 2019, [online] available: https://media.defense.gov/2019/Jul/12/2002156622/-1/-1/1/DOD-DIGITALMODERNIZATION-STRATEGY-2019.PDF
[6] Congressional Research Service, “The Department of Defense’s JEDI Cloud Program” [online] available: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R45847.pdf