What's new in substation monitoring? How about in customer information systems for utilities? Scroll down and on page 2 for a look at six new and wide ranging solutions designed with utilities in mind.

Infrax SPIDer targets copper theft and malicious attacks

Noting that copper theft, site destruction and malicious activity are occurring at an alarming rate in the electric utility industry.  Infrax Systems introduced the SPIDer (Secure Perimeter Intrusion Detection) network to meet the threats to power substations, generation facilities and other critical infrastructure. The Florida-based company says its SPIDer network provides a multi-level approach to intrusion detection and alarming that is flexible, can be rapidly deployed and configured, and can provide near real-time verification of remote threats. Learn more >>

Kamstrup also takes aim at substation security

After successfully field testing its substation monitoring device with customers in Norway, Denmark-based Kamstrup announced it is making UtiliKeeper available in all of its markets. Using external sensors, the company says the device detects critical substation situations and sends alarms to operators in close to real time. Its integrated logger functionality provides an overview of historical data and events.

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Nils Petter Skjegstad of the Norwegian utility Istad Nett said they are using UtiliKeeper primarily to collect information on earth faults from substations which is a regulatory requirement in Norway, "However, through UtiliKeeper," he said, "we also harvest important real-time information from the substations' multi-instruments showing transformer load and different current and voltage quality parameters." Learn more >>

S&C secures smart grid controls with McAfee solution

S&C Electric Company will bundle application control software from McAfee into its PC-based control platforms. The company says the bundling allows it to enhance the security and protection of its control platforms that use commercial, off-the-shelf operating systems.  

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"Cybersecurity is a concern in the deployment of smart grid technology," noted Rohit Khera, S&C Cyber Security Architect.  "By integrating advanced security features like those provided by McAfee, S&C is helping to address one of the hurdles to deploying a modern smart grid."  Learn more >>