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News from EnerNex |
EnerNex Press Releases
AnnouncementsClick here to access our news archive TVA Selects EnerNex to Help Address Network SecurityThe Tennessee Valley Authority has asked EnerNex to assist in developing an overall security policy for their PowerWAN network. In late 2004, TVA began the deployment of this wide area network empowering real-time access to operational and non-operational data. The PowerWAN constitutes a separate electronic security perimeter within TVA, and is designed to consolidate Enterprise-level access to substation data from disparate individual connections into a single controlled, robust, and secure solution. Erich Gunther and Darren Highfill are completing on-site stakeholder engagement interviews to help TVA flush out anticipated use cases and discover unforeseen applications. EnerNex will then work with TVA on establishing an overall framework for the PowerWAN Security Policy, and will work closely with TVA all the way down to the application-level specifics needed for real-world implementation. EnerNex joins Advanced Metering Infrastructure ConsortiumEnerNex is one of the charter members of the OpenAMI Task Force, an international, industry-wide initiative whose sole objective is to rapidly develop a recommended open, standards-based information/data model, reference design and interoperability guidelines for Advanced Metering networks and Demand Response solutions. The formation of the OpenAMI Task Force was announced at the DistribuTECH 2005 conference. For more information, visit the Task Force web site. Erich Gunther Contributes to NARUC BPL Task Force ReportErich Gunther provided input to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Broadband Over Power Lines Task Force. Erich made a presentation to the task force on the security vulnerabilities in broadband over power lines and discussed possible solutions. The task force report can be found on the NARUC web site. Nader Samaan joins EnerNexEnerNex is pleased to announce that Nader Samaan has joined EnerNex as a power systems engineer. Nader comes to EnerNex from Kansas State University, where he was a visiting assistant professor. He taught undergraduate, graduate and distance courses in power systems engineering, covering topics such as transformers and transmissions lines modeling, load flow, power systems design, distributed generation, available transfer capability, economic dispatch, unit commitment, generation production cost models, automatic generation control, tie-line control and reliability of power systems. Previously, Nader was a graduate teaching assistant and a graduate research assistant at Texas A&M University. He is a two time recipient of a fellowship from the Texas A&M Electric Power and Power Electronics Institute. Nader is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society and received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University. Jun Li joins EnerNexEnerNex is pleased to announce that Jun Li has joined EnerNex Corporation as a power systems engineer. He comes to EnerNex after finishing work on his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in August. There he worked as a graduate research assistant where he developed a fuzzy resolver used in a new and accurate fault locator for radial distribution systems. He also investigated fuzzy aggregation operators that are appropriate for fault location, modeled TCC-based protective devices and modeled a radial distribution system with TCC-based protective devices. Prior to that, Jun Li was employed by the Northwest China Electric Power Group where he operated the Shaanxi power system network using advanced applications, such as state estimation, contingency analysis and optimal power flow. He also tested a variety of electrical equipment and implemented testing for high voltage circuit breakers. He has extensive experience in power systems reliability studies. His software expertise includes ATP, PSCAD, SimPowerSystems, PSS/E, Java, C, C++, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, MATLAB, Oracle, Access, FoxPro and MS-SQL. Jun Li received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiao Tong University in Xian, China in 1993 and 1996. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in 2005. Ben Rankin joins EnerNexEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce Ben Rankin has joined as a software engineer supporting EnerNex's work in utility systems integration. He also brings information security expertise to EnerNex's work in utility communication and automation. Ben will be working on EnerNex's web based monitoring software as well as providing utility communication use case development support for a variety of clients including Southern California Edison and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Prior to joining EnerNex, Ben was employed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center as a computer engineer. There he worked on teams programming and developing models and simulations for naval systems using C++ and Visual Basic. He performed requirements gathering and used UML to define software design. Ben also analyzed naval systems for performance and worked with cost analysis to determine best acquisition choices. Previously, he was employed as an Information Technology Manager for Gameboard Distributors Inc. and as a computer support specialist for Atchley, Montgomery & Associates. Ben is a 2003 graduate of the University of Tennessee and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. EnerNex initiates multi-client collaborative project to test flicker metersEnerNex has inaugurated its new test lab facilities by beginning work on a multi-client collaborative project to test flicker meters using a methodology proposed by the Cigré C4.1.01 working group on voltage quality. In principle, all flicker meters built according to the IEC 61000-4-15 standard should provide the same results when connected to the same signal source. However, the flicker meter specifications were originally written for an analog design, the acceptance test in the standard is not comprehensive, and instrument characteristics such as sampling rate, A/D resolution, and other attributes are not specified in the standard. Recently, it has been documented that flicker meters from different manufacturers give widely varying results when measuring the same signal in some situations. For example, a recent arc furnace study and measurement campaign found that the Pst measured by three different meters ranged from 1.66 to 2.34 - an unacceptably large difference. The project consists of the following elements:
Participants in the collaborative project include electric utilities and flicker meter manufacturers. In addition to EnerNex’s own test equipment, additional equipment has been donated for use in the project by California Instruments and Omicron. More information can be found in the collaborative project prospectus. EnerNex to test substation automation equipment for the Tennessee Valley AuthorityEnerNex is upgrading its laboratory facilities in Knoxville Tenn. to facilitate comprehensive testing of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) that will be deployed at TVA’s new Bradley substation. The Bradley project involves the deployment of IEDs that communicate with each other and supervisory systems using the IEC 61850 communications standard suite. IEC 61850 specifies communications protocol profiles and information models for numerous power system devices such as protective relays and metering devices. The standard specifies minimum requirements for those information models and communications profiles as well as the device configuration capabilities. TVA has augmented the minimum requirements defined in the standard with their own requirements necessary to support TVA objectives. These additional requirements include minimum security requirements and additional information model attributes. To address these issues, EnerNex will provide independent testing in three phases:
EnerNex employees have been intimately involved in the development of the IEC 61850 standard including the test methodology and are therefore uniquely qualified to carry out these tests for TVA. To facilitate the testing, EnerNex is enlisting the help of SISCO to provide software tools and test scripts. RuggedCom is donating network infrastructure hardware to augment EnerNex facilities for this effort. Upon completion of the testing of equipment for the TVA project, EnerNex will offer similar testing services to other utilities and vendors. EnerNex Announces Two New EmployeesEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce that two new employees have recently joined the company. Melissa Campbell has joined EnerNex as an Accounting Assistant. Previously, she worked as an office manager/accountant for Emerald Coast Family Practice in Navarre, Florida. Melissa received a B.S. in Business Administration from East Tennessee State University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Tennessee. Chandra Pallem has joined EnerNex as a Power Systems Engineer. She recently graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. While pursuing her doctorate, she was employed as a graduate research assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Previously, Chandra was employed as an electrical design engineer at Design Bureau Consultants Pvt. Limited in India. There she worked on the development of one line diagrams for indoor and outdoor substations. She calculated illumination levels for indoor and outdoor lighting, residential and commercial areas, schools, hospitals, laboratories, warehouses and industrial facilities. She also designed power distribution, fire alarm systems, security and emergency power systems. Robert Henry Joins EnerNexEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce that Robert Henry has joined as a Software Engineer. He will be providing applications development and support related to several EnerNex projects involving monitoring of energy storage and deployment of protocol gateways. Henry received BS degrees in Business Administration and Computer Science, along with a MS in Computer Science from East Tennessee State University. Experienced in C++/C, Java, SQL, HTML., XML, FORTRAN and UML, he has worked in the MS Visual Studio, Netbeans ISE, and Linux VIM development environments. He previously held a graduate assistantship at East Tennessee State University and worked at a commercial printing firm. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. Erich Gunther Nominated for Election as IEEE PES SecretaryEnerNex Co-founder and Principal Consultant Erich Gunther has been nominated by the IEEE Power Engineering Society Nominations and Appointments Committee and approved by the Governing Board as a candidate for Secretary of the Society. A Senior Member of the IEEE, Gunther has over 20 years of experience in the electric power industry and actively involved in various IEEE working groups including serving as the Chairman of the P1159.3 task force on power quality data interchange, Vice Chair of the Harmonics working group, Vice Chair of the SCC-22 Power Quality Standards Coordinating Committee, and Chairman of the interharmonic task force, and Vice Chairman of the harmonics working group. Erich is the principal author and chapter chairman of the terms, definitions, and phenomena sections of the draft IEEE Guide to Monitoring Power Quality being produced by the P1159 working group. Candidates for the IEEE Power Engineering Society officer positions will be presented at the PES General Membership Meeting, June 25 in Tampa. Jens Schoene Joins EnerNexEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce that Jens Schoene has joined as a Power Systems Engineer. He graduated last December with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida. He will provide power system simulation and analytical support to EnerNex clients. Jens has a strong background in investigating the interaction of lightning strikes with electric power systems and grounding structures. While pursuing his doctorate, he was employed as a research assistant at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT). He has also conducted research related to lightning for Florida Power and Light, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Federal Aviation Administration. Brad Singletary Joins EnerNexEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce that Brad Singletary has joined as a Utility Communications Security Architect. Brad will be consulting on utility communications applications, where his areas of expertise include utility information security, software engineering and architecture, artificial intelligence algorithms, intelligent interface design and firmware design. Brad holds a B.S. in Computer Science from East Tennessee State University and a M.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Aaron Snyder Joins EnerNexEnerNex Corporation is pleased to announce that Aaron Snyder has joined as a Consulting Engineer. Aaron will contribute immediately to the Smart Grid Group at EnerNex, but his skills and background allow him to also work with the Power Systems Engineers. Before joining EnerNex, Aaron held a position as a Regulatory Standards Manager for Itron, Inc. In this capacity, Aaron determined corporate strategy for electricity metering and data acquisition products based on pre-release market requirements, national and international regulations and domestic and international standards. Aaron received his Doctorat (Ph.D) in Electrical Engineering from Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble in 1999. He holds a MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. |
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