Motivation and Objective:

Large power grids are extremely complex systems. Dealing with highly dynamic phenomena in protection and control, algorithms require long-distance, high-volume and highly reliable data communications. However, it is widely agreed that electric grids are getting increasingly stressed each year due to surging demand and inadequate transmission growth. At the same time, the centralized generation model is increasingly being extended by the distributed producer-consumer Smart Grid model that adds even more demands on communication (both for control and pricing reasons) and trustworthiness (dependability, security, privacy, performance guarantees...) of the overall grid infrastructure. As conventional proprietary communication links get augmented by ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) based Internet overlays, P2P and other techniques in the Smart Grid, the trustworthiness links across classical power aspects (power community) and computing/communication aspects (DSN community) need to be fundamentally re-thought to provide for improved overall trustworthiness of the Smart Grid. Investigating this synergy, new techniques and challenges forms the premise of the ToSG workshop.

The goal of this workshop (and successors) is to provide a much better understanding of dependability/security issues involved with the Smart Grids' dependency on ICT and to help stimulate research to improve grid trustworthiness. A targeted goal of the workshop will be to facilitate research matchmaking between the electric power researchers and dependable computing communities. We thus hope to create an interdisciplinary community that will bear fruit well past the end of this first workshop.

 

Further Information on the Workshop can be found here.

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