Overview

GridStat is a middleware framework we are researching, prototyping, and developing. It provides flexible, robust, timely, and secure delivery of operational status information for the electric power grid.

In The News

June 2016 -- New Documents

Multiple new publications have been added to the Publications page.

October 2010 -- New Documents

  • Smart Generation and Transmission with Coherent, Real-Time Data TR-GS-015.pdf
  • Smart Grid Interoperability: QoS Stovepipes or QoS Interoperability TR-GS-013.pdf

November 2009 -- TCIPG Update

A new award of nearly $18.8 million over a five-year period from the Department of Energy (DOE) and contributions from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wil fund the new Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIPG) project, an expanded effort of the current project TCIP. The new TCIPG research program will develop and integrate information technologies with properties ”such as real-time availability, integrity, authentication, and confidentiality” that are key to a modern, reliable, and efficient electric power grid. ​http://www.oe.energy.gov/DocumentsandMedia/DOE_Funds_TCIPG_Nov2009.pdf

October 2009

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that that the the $1 million she included for transmission grid research and development at Washington State University (WSU) in the fiscal year 2010 Senate Energy and Water Development appropriations bill has been included in the final version of the spending bill. The bill has now been approved by both houses of Congress after passing the Senate today by a vote of 80-17 and will now head to the President who is expected to sign it into law.

“WSU’s work developing these power grid updates is essential to increasing our state’s access to affordable and environmentally-friendly forms of energy,” said Senator Patty Murray. “This funding will support WSU’s work to improve grid reliability and will help reduce ensure a cleaner environment for future generations.”

​http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=318992

August 2005

A team of researchers led by EECS computer science associate professors Carl Hauser and Dave Bakken together with Dr. Anjan Bose, Dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture Distinguished Professor of Power Engineering, will play a major role in a National Science Foundation-sponsored research initiative intended to address the challenge of protecting the cybersecurity of the nation's power grid. WSU has been named as one of four universities that will participate in a new five-year collaborative research effort supported initially by an NSF grant of $7.5 million. Other collaborators are Cornell University, Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). UIUC will serve as the home of a national center to be called Trustworthy Cyber Infrastructure for the Power Grid (TCIP) early $1 million of the NSF grant money has been pledged to support WSU research.

The WSU researchers have been designing and developing GridStat, a communication system intended to improve the security, efficiency and reliability of the power grid. Poor communication of operational data has been recognized as a major contributing factor to all recent blackouts. GridStat is designed to overcome this problem. It delivers status information to participants in the power grid in a much more flexible and robust manner than is possible today. GridStat is the first operational implementation of such a flexible system. It has been deployed for two years in a technology demonstration project using real power grid data from Avista Utilities. The funding from this project will support further development of GridStat concepts and integration with technologies developed by other collaborators. WSU research will extend trust management concepts to provide more dynamic and adaptable access control for grid communications. More information about the TCIP project can be found on the TCIP website.

Acknowledgements

GridStat research is supported by Grant 0326006 from the National Science Foundation.