Existing research capabitility in cyber and physical security

University of Colorad at Colorado Springs is well positioned in contributing and leading the cyber and physical security research and development effort in this initiative.  We have faculty members with expertise and federal funded research projects in the cyber area, including new biometric system and infrastructure that ensure the secure communication and protect user privacy, secure collective network defense with multipath indirect routing and secure Domain Name System, innovative techniques for detecting and mitigation of intrusion and Distributed Denial of  Service attacks, secure information sharing system that applies role-based attribute certificates for on-demand secure access and operations,   intelligent surveillance system for monitoring and protecting infrastructures, patented network restoration and survivable architectures for telecommunication networks, NSF funded multi-tier server cluster research with fine grain of qualify of service provisioning.

The new smart secure grid will interconnect users at different levels from major utilities, military bases, businesses, to residential customers, with different roles both as energy producers and consumers.  A new authentication and identity management system is needed to provide secure communications and real-time transactions.  With the potential terrorist and natural attacks on both power distribution, control, and communication infrastructures, a high available, malicious intrusion tolerant, adaptive quality of service system together with an intelligent surveillance and protection system are demanded of the new smart secure grids.

Our goals are to join the Integrated Colorado Smart Grid project team, leverage our existing expertise  to lead or contribute the effort in

• Designing  a brand new secure communication protocol for smart secure grids with new capabilities for  combined biometric/key authentication  and redundant high available multipath connections with guarantee quality of service to tolerate DDoS and other malicious attacks.
• Creating  a monitoring and surveillance system for the new smart secure grid.
• Developing  a demand response system with real time network restoration and survivable architectures.
• Designing a self-organizing and self-adaptive resource management framework for smart secure grids, with resource allocation optimization and dynamic load sharing capacities.

Existing research capability in energy

UCCS has singular expertise in the battery controls field.  Dr. Gregory L. Plett (Ph.D. in adaptive estimation and controls, Stanford) is considered to be a world expert in the field of controls of battery systems.  He has published seventeen articles specifically in battery controls (and others in related controls fields), is sole inventor of five U.S. patents in battery controls (with seventeen additional U.S. patents pending).  Dr. M. Scott Trimboli (Ph.D. in robust multivariable controls, Oxford) is an expert in control systems. Dr. Edward Chow is an expert in reliabiltiy, distributed resource allocation and multi-commodity flow optimization. Dr. Joe Zhou is an expert in quality of Services, network resource allocation and multi-tier server cluster. Together they form a very strong team that can provide fresh insights into optimal control of the electric grid.

Dr. Plett's interest in this project would be in how to take advantage of the increasing number of plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles that connect to the grid.  These vehicles provide a distributed battery back-up system that can assist in power demand fluctuations and allow the power demanded from the primary generation stations to be smoothed out, resulting in making certain generation technologies more attractive than they otherwise might be.  Alternately, these vehicles might also provide a buffer when extra generation capability is present from generation sites where constant power cannot be guaranteed (e.g., solar power and wind power).  There are very interesting optimal control questions to be answered: How do we determine how to allocate power demand?  How do we deal with extra power demand?  How do we accommodate extra generation capability?  What cost/benefit scenario makes this advantageous for both the consumer and the producer of electric power?

We are presently engaged as subcontractor to the “GM-UM Advanced Coalition for Drivetrains,” a $5M project at the University of Michigan, with primary funding through the Department of Energy.  Our share is $750K, and our role is to develop surrogate controls-oriented battery models and control means that optimize performance and lifetime of batteries for plug-in type electric vehicles.  We would leverage the new understanding of degradation mechanisms within cells to ensure that the vehicle’s batteries were not being unduly aged by the grid control scheme.