POWERGEN

Meeting the cyber threat head-on in POWERGEN+ Monday and Tuesday

Meeting the cyber threat head-on in POWERGEN+ Monday and Tuesday

The threat will be front and center Monday in POWERGEN+ — no shying away from it.

The monthly, virtual version of POWERGEN International will focus next week on cybersecurity dangers and making sense of data analytics within the power plant. Starting Monday, experts from around the generation sector will speak on detecting and deflecting the probes of bad actors who want to damage the industry.

VTScada by Trihedral, a software protection platform, will kick off POWERGEN+ with a session on “The Cost of Failure: Why Mission-Critical should be your Mission.” Speakers will include VTScada experts Pete Diffley, senior manager of global partnership; Dave Spencer, Atlantic Canada technical sales leader; and Chris Little, who heads up media relations for the company and will moderate the session.

See the complete schedule and past sessions on-demand at POWERGEN+

Utilities face severe legal consequences from downtime and service interruptions due to cybersecurity vulnerabilities and system architecture weakness, so failure truly is not an option. The panel will look at the major issues which can lead to catastrophic control system failure and ways to mitigate against it.

Another high-level panel will highlight the first editorial session Monday in POWERGEN+. Michael Toecker, a well-known consulting engineer who has been involved with proactive cybersecurity projects like as DARPA, will moderate the panel including speakers from Idaho National Laboratory, Archer International and the Florida Municipal Power Agency.

“Power Generation Cyber Maintenance Considerations” will take those perspectives and zero in on cybersecurity requirements needed to ensure adequate protection for the power sector.

Security solutions provider XTec will then sponsor another panel session on “Protecting Your Generation Assets with a Zero Trust Identity Management System.” XTec’s Steve Lindsay and Danny Vital will be joined by former Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency chief security officer Danny Williams to pinpoint ways the utility sector can benefit from identity and access management technologies also used by government and military clients.

Monday’s POWERGEN+ wraps up with “Making Sense of Data in the Conventional Power Plant.” Alessea Lane of Emerson and Jason Graham of Avista Corp. will team up to provide service firms and utility approaches to determining the best and most efficient ways to use analytics and digital transformation in making power plants operate on a safer, most productive level.

Registration is free for POWERGEN +. The event will continue Tuesday with sessions including Siemens, American Electric Power, AES, McKinsey & C0., North American Electric Reliability Corp., Rockwell Automation and XMPLR Energy.

Go powergenplus.com for more information.

Schedule for the December 14-15 POWERGEN+ series on cybersecurity and the digital power plant (all times U.S. Eastern)

Monday, Dec. 14

10:55-11 a.m.: Welcome video

11:30-12:15 p.m.: Cost of Failure-Why Mission Critical should be your Mission, sponsored by VT Scada by Trihedral

12:30-1:15 p.m.: Power Generation Cyber Maintenance Considerations (panel)

1:30-2:15 p.m.: Protecting Your Generation Assets with a Zero Trust Identity Management System, sponsored by XTec

2:30-3:15 p.m.: Making Sense of Data in the Conventional Power Plant, featuring Emerson and Avista

Tuesday, Dec. 15

10:55 a.m.: Welcome video

11:30-12:15 p.m.: The Airgap is Not Enough-Cybersecurity Perimeters in OT Networks, sponsored by Siemens

12:30 p.m.-1:15 p.m.: The Future of Digitalization in Power, featuring AES and McKinsey & Co.

2:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.: Securing the Supply Chain in the Bulk Power System