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MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: Preparing the smart grid for more power
Foxborough-based cyber-security firm Industrial Defender Inc. has struck a claim in the growing smart grid industry with a new partnership deal with GE Energy, the power and energy division of General Electric Co.
Under terms of the original equipment manufacturer agreement, GE Energy will offer Industrial Defender’s suite of critical infrastructure cyber-security products in its offerings to power plants, grid operators and utilities on a global scale. The product will provide network security features, protecting against outside threats to the smart grid network, and assessing and managing risk elements when rolling out new network elements.
In North America, the product offering will also help electricity providers meet the parameters of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Critical Infrastructure Protection program, a set of cyber-security standards originated in 2006 and supported by the Federal Communications Council.
For Industrial Defender, which counts several energy and power companies among its 9,000 deployments worldwide, the GE Energy deal represents a new distribution channel, as well as an area in which the 103-person, 13-year-old company has seen growth in the past year, despite the economic downturn.
“This converged (power and communications) energy network is opening up these networks to new threats,” said Todd Nicholson, chief marketing officer for Industrial Defender. “These networks were never designed with cyber-security in mind and never designed to be connected to the outside world (before smart grids).”
According to Nicholson, Industrial Defender has grown its head count by 100 percent over the past year and expects 2009 to see a more modest growth of 20 percent. To keep up, the company this week announced an expansion of its Foxborough headquarters, going from 7,000 square feet to more than 21,000 square feet to accommodate a newly outfitted security operations center, research lab and other functions.
Nicholson said the company has also seen increased interest from the endpoints of the network, where security is needed for smart grid applications such as automated meter reading.
Industry insiders agree that the opportunities in the modernization of the electric infrastructure are growing, including smart grid applications such as automated meter reading. According to a report released earlier this week from ABI Research in Arizona, the number of “smart” electricity meters installed worldwide is expected to reach approximately 76 million this year, up from 49 million in 2007. In addition, President Barack Obama’s recently rolled out stimulus package includes at least $4.3 billion through the U.S. Department of Energy for the migration to a more intelligent power infrastructure.
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