Utility customers expect power to be available where and when they want it and without restriction.  To maintain strong customer satisfaction for power availability, the utility’s Smart Grid infrastructure must be highly reliable and resilient where economically feasible.  As an integral component of the Smart Grid, the communication network should also be resilient with multiple redundant pathways to ensure there is no single point of failure. 

GridCom™ builds upon open standard security techniques including AES, IEEE 802.1x, IEEE 802.11i, IPSec, SSL/TLS, and FIPS 140-2. These standards comprise requirements for authentication, authorization and access control; encryption; key generation, distribution, management and storage; physical security; and the detection and mitigation of attacks and include approaches ranging from the physical layer all the way up to the application layer.

There are also several additional security standards being developed to address the security requirements applicable to specific aspects of Smart Grid development including the NERC CIP standards for the bulk electric system and AMI-SEC for AMI system security.  GridCom is designed to adapt to integrate the appropriate aspects of these industry standards as they become ratified.