Why ECC? 
SURVEYS
Over the past several weeks we have been conducting interviews with executives in electrical generation, transmission and distribution businesses across America, to determine their views on Smart Grid, its impact, implementation, and the role of security in this unfolding story.
Highlights of the report itself will be posted on this site weekly, and in 3-4 weeks time, the complete report will be made available only to managers and executives employed in the electrical industry. To receive a copy of complete copy of this report, we would ask you to participate in this survey: simply provide us your name, title, company and addresses and we will mail you a confidential copy. No names or other identifying marks or symbols are attributed to any comment shared with us, in this confidential survey.
Noted below are key excerpts from our ongoing research. These comments are informative and will help provide you a sense of where your peers are, in Smart Grid implementation and the level of awareness around the pressing need for smart grid security and, how they go about addressing this need.
When we asked respondents what the Smart Grid meant to their firm, this is what they had to say:
- ‘smart grid is a short term for an awful lot of things’
- ‘computer systems that monitor the distribution, transmission of customers’ electrical infrastructure’
- ‘means deploying new technologies with existing technologies to be able to realize benefits for the customer, rate payer, and company’
- ‘there is the information piece and the control aspect’
- ‘allows all stakeholders to make better informed decisions on how they want to manage their energy use’
We asked them what Smart Grid looked like in their company; their responses were as follows:
- ‘We are not too far from it now’
- ‘to be able to make business decisions on how to operate the electric systems so you’re not in a run to failure mode, you’re in predictive monitoring mode’
- ‘it means a lot more data coming into our dispatchers view but it will be also mean going right into controlling generation’
In responding to a question of what Smart Grid security looks like, your colleagues noted the following:
- ‘it’s not as stringent as cyber security’
- ‘its hard to describe…it a secure network that not only the company but also the consumer can rely on’
- ‘basically security is about event logs…so you need strong firewalls’
- ‘you need to have people that all they focus on is security’
- you need to have tight security so that they can’t get into your SCADA systems’
Please visit us often as we will refresh the content/responses regularly.