Researchers Use Blockchain to Increase Electric Grid Resiliency
hubie writes:
Researchers use blockchain to increase electric grid resiliency:
Although blockchain is best known for securing digital currency payments, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using it to track a different kind of exchange: It's the first time blockchain has ever been used to validate communication among devices on the electric grid.
[...] "This framework gives us a totally new capability to rapidly respond to anomalies," Borges Hink said. "In the long run, we could more quickly identify an unauthorized system change, find its source and provide more trustworthy failure analysis. The goal is to limit the damage caused by a cyberattack or equipment failure."
The approach uses tamper-resistant blockchain to spread configuration and operational data redundantly across multiple servers. The data and equipment settings are constantly verified against a statistical baseline of normal voltage, frequency, breaker status and power quality. Equipment settings are collected at frequent intervals and compared to the last good configuration saved in the blockchain. This allows rapid recognition of when and how settings were changed, whether those changes were authorized, and what caused them.
[...] This kind of monitoring requires processing a vast amount of information. The blockchain uses a cryptographic method called hashing, where a mathematical computation is performed on the bulk data to represent it as numbers in the blockchain. This saves energy and reduces the space needed to store data. The blockchain processes thousands of transactions per second for each intelligent grid device, validating the contents.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.