Securing Solar for the Grid (S2G)

Four national laboratories are conducting research for the S2G project—the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory. The organizational structure of the S2G project takes advantage of the cybersecurity expertise at each national laboratory while actively engaging industry stakeholders. Each year, two national laboratories take the lead as S2G Chair and Vice Chair to coordinate activities between laboratories, other DOE offices, and industry. S2G’s industry advisory board, which has more than 25 participants with diverse expertise across the solar industry, meets twice a year to discuss project progress, emerging challenges, and recommendations.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) funds S2G through the Fiscal Year 2022-24 Lab Call.

Objectives

According to the Solar Futures Study, solar energy could represent 45% of the electric supply in the United States by 2050. As we continue adding solar energy generation to the grid to reach this level, we must ensure it is done as safely and reliably as possible. The S2G project is working to ensure the safety and security of the electric grid with high levels of solar PV and other forms of DERs by developing a national cybersecurity certification standard for DER and merging this standard with other existing cyber security guidelines and recommendations to make it easier and cheaper for solar to securely integrate with the grid.

The expected outcomes of this research effort are the development and dissemination of requirements standards, best practices, equipment testing procedures, assessment, and cyber tools, as well as education and training material. The technical approach takes in consideration all levels of solar integration including devices, plant, and system levels. S2G will increase cyber defense, and cyber posture for all solar technologies and deployments as well as their stakeholders.

Approach

S2G supports National Laboratories leadership in three research areas:

• Standards Development and Best Practices: Stakeholder engagement is being conducted to investigate gaps in existing standards and develop best practices that can become standards to enable the secure integration of inverter-based resources and DERs.
• Cybersecurity Tool Kit and Supply Chain: Teams are conducting research and development of tools to understand stakeholders’ cybersecurity posture, risk assessments to inform investments, and device design security and maturity model for cyber supply chain and supply chain testing.
• Education & Workforce Training: Development of educational modules and training is being conducted to increase cybersecurity awareness and knowledge amongst solar stakeholders.

Resources

Standards Development and Best Practices

• Certification Procedures for Data and Communication Security of DERs - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Cybersecurity for DER and DER Aggregators - North American Electric Reliability Corporation
• Cybersecurity in Photovoltaic Operations - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Cybersecurity Primer for DER Vendors, Aggregators, and Grid Operators - Sandia National Laboratories
• Recommendations for Data in Transit Requirements for Securing DER Communications - Sandia National Laboratories
• Recommendations for Trust and Encryption in DER Interoperability Standard - Sandia National Laboratories
• Roadmap for Photovoltaic Cybersecurity - Sandia National Laboratories
• Industry Advisory Board Meeting - S2G Presentation

Toolkit and Supply Chain

• Gap Analysis of Supply Chain Cybersecurity for DERs - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Power Systems Cybersecurity: SOAR4DER - Sandia National Laboratories
• Security through Hardware Integration, Education, and Layered Defense for Renewables - Idaho National Laboratory
• Supply Chain Cybersecurity Recommendations for Solar Photovoltaics - National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Learn more about systems integration research, other solar energy research in SETO, and current and former funding programs.