Although a wide array of tools and technologies have been developed over the last decade to support power grid operators, deployment of these tools has been less successful. One reason for unsuccessful deployment may be a focus on error reduction without an adequate understanding of the factors that contribute to operator error in the control room. An analysis of these factors (i.e., vulnerabilities) may provide the baseline understanding needed to inform new technology integration. In an attempt to learn more about these vulnerabilities and their perceived impact on human error we collected and analyzed survey data from 20 electric grid control room operators. We asked survey respondents to consider the various operator, technology and interaction vulnerabilities that may arise during work in the control room and record their attitudes and experiences toward each. Results suggest operator inexperience, high mental workload and fatigue are the most common vulnerabilities experienced during a shift. Technology solutions should set operators up for success by addressing these factors. Survey results were analyzed to explore these vulnerabilities in greater depth.

This report describes the key outcomes of research activities sponsored by the Department of Energy's Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) number 1861 that was aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art in big data analytics applied to transmission-level synchrophasor measurements. The FOA resulted in eight research grants where the awardees developed machine learning and artificial intelligence tools and approaches. The commonalities in tools and approaches used by the awardees are explored, and insights gained from how the project outcomes might be operationalized are discussed. This report does not seek to comprehensively summarize all research supported by the FOA, rather it focuses on enabling the fast dissemination of major findings to the broader power systems community.

Grid operators and electric utilities are increasingly driven to develop automated processes and introduce decision support tools to reduce cognitive demand on System Operations staff and aid in the operational decision-making process. However, System Operation staff are traditionally hesitant to implement and accept new solutions, automation processes, and tools within the control room. This paper explores high-value opportunities to advance automation in electric grid control rooms for the purpose of improving grid safety, reliability, and resiliency during normal and emergency operating conditions.

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This report studies the expected future state of the grid and recommends actions that can be taken to increase grid resiliency, improve system modeling, perform more extensive studies, enhance training activities and perform industry outreach for the purpose of the blackstart capabilities of power systems.

In this paper, we discuss the process we are using in the design and implementation of a tool to improve the situation awareness of cyberattacks in the power grid. We provide details of the steps we have taken to date and describe the steps that still need to be accomplished. The focus of this work is to provide situation awareness of the power grid to staff from different, non-overlapping roles in an electrical transmission organization in order to facilitate an understanding of a possible occurrence of a cyberattack. Our approach follows a user-centered design process and includes determining the types of information to display, the format of the displays, and the personnel to whom the display should be shown. Additionally, there is the issue of how much help the tool can provide in the way of assessing the probability of a cyberattack given the current status of various portions of the power grid. Regardless, the ability to provide a common operating picture should enable the various groups to collaborate on a response.

Objective This plan details the processes that PNNL will use for acquiring, anonymizing and protecting utility data offered for use in research projects affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electric Reliability and Resilience (OE). PNNL has been tasked with obtaining agreements with utilities to provide PMU and related data for research purposes, and to assemble anonymized practice and test datasets for the three primary U.S. electric grid interconnections. DOE intends to provide anonymized PMU data to selected researchers to explore the capability of artificial intelligence tools to identify and improve existing knowledge, and to discover new insights and tools for better grid operation and management.

The power grid is a complex, interconnected system that requires the coordination of multiple entities to ensure the reliability of the system. System operators must be aware of the impacts of various natural and man-made contingencies through telemetry from their control systems, and they must also be aware of the integrity and availability of the cyber assets on their systems. A team of researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory have conducted a series of observations and interviews at power utilities to identify what information needs to be available for both control room dispatchers and cyber security analysts to maintain situation awareness of cyber security to effectively monitor the cyber assets on utility control systems. The researchers interviewed and observed control room dispatchers and spoke with regional control system engineers and cyber security analysts to define the context in which such information would be used. The results of this work will inform the design of a tool that will enhance cyber situation awareness and help facilitate effective communication between the various personnel and organizations with utility and other regional authorities during contingencies.

We report on a series of interviews and observations conducted with control room dispatchers in a bulk electrical system. These dispatchers must react quickly to incidents as they happen in order to ensure the reliability and safe operation of the power grid. They do not have the time to evaluate incidents for signs of cyber-attack as part of their initial response. Cyber-attack detection involves multiple personnel from a variety of roles at both local and regional levels. Smart grid technology will improve detection and defense capabilities of the future grid, however, the current infrastructure remains a mixture of old and new equipment which will continue to operate for some time. Thus, research still needs to focus on strategies for the detection of malicious activity on current infrastructure as well as protection and remediation.

standards, induced intergranular-stress-corrosion-cracking (IGSCC) in retaining ring material coupons, and induced cracks in full size retaining rings have demonstrated the system's capability to detect surface damage. Future efforts will incorporate other problem-relevant signal processing algorithms to aid in detecting and characterizing surface-damage, such as pitting and cracking. 6 refs., 20 figs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the primary enforcement agency protecting the nation's ports of entry. CBP is enhancing its capability to interdict the illicit import of nuclear and radiological materials and devices that may be used by terrorists. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is providing scientific and technical support to CBP in their goal to enable rapid deployment of nuclear and radiation detection systems at U. S. ports of entry to monitor 100% of the incoming international traffic and cargo while not adversely impacting the operations or throughput of the ports. The U.S. ports of entry include the following vectors: land border crossings, seaports, airports, rail crossings, and mail and express consignment courier facilities.U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) determined that a screening solution was needed for Seaport cargo containers being transported by Straddle Carriers (straddle carriers). A stationary Radiation Portal Monitor (RPM) for Straddle Carriers (SCRPM) is needed so that cargo containers can be scanned while in transit under a Straddle Carrier. The Straddle Carrier Portal operational impacts were minimized by conducting a time-motion study at the Port, and adaptation of a Remotely Operated RPM (RO-RPM) booth concept that uses logical lighting schemes for traffic control, cameras, Optical Character Recognition, and wireless technology.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the primary enforcement agency protecting the nation’s ports of entry. CBP is enhancing its capability to interdict the illicit import of nuclear and radiological materials and devices that may be used by terrorists. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is providing scientific and technical support to CBP in their goal to enable rapid deployment of nuclear and radiation detection systems at U. S. ports of entry to monitor 100% of the incoming international traffic and cargo while not adversely impacting the operations or throughput of the ports. As the deployment of radiation detection systems proceeds, there is a need to adapt the baseline radiation portal monitor (RPM) system technology to operations at these diverse ports of entry. When screening produces an alarm in the primary inspection RPM, the alarming vehicle is removed from the flow of commerce and the alarm is typically confirmed in a secondary inspection RPM. The portable source identification device (PSID) is a radiation sensor panel (RSP), based on thallium-doped sodium iodide (NaI(Tl)) scintillation detector and gamma spectroscopic analysis hardware and software, mounted on a scissor lift on a small truck. The lift supports a box containing a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sodium iodide detector that provides real-time isotopic identification, including neutron detectors to interdict Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and radiation dispersion devices (RDD). The scissor lift will lower the detectors to within a foot off the ground and raise them to approximately 24 feet (7.3 m) in the air, allowing a wide vertical scanning range.

In the rail industry, sections of high strength Manganese steel are employed at critical locations in railroad networks. Ultrasonic inspections of Manganese steel microstructures are difficult to inspect with conventional means, as the propagation medium is highly attenuative, coarse-grained, anisotropic and nonhomogeneous in nature. Current in-service inspection methods are ineffective while pre-service X-ray methods (used for full-volumetric examinations of components prior to shipment) are time-consuming, costly, require special facilities and highly trained personnel for safe operations, and preclude manufacturers from inspecting statistically meaningful numbers of frogs for effective quality assurance. In-service examinations consist of visual inspections only and by the time a defect or flaw is visually detected, the structural integrity of the component may already be compromised, and immediate repair or replacement is required. A novel ultrasonic inspection technique utilizing low frequency ultrasound (100 to 500 kHz) combined with a synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) for effective reduction of signal clutter and noise, and extraction of important features in the data, has proven to be effective for these coarse grained steel components. Results from proof-of-principal tests in the laboratory demonstrate an effective means to detect and localize reflectors introduced as a function of size and depth from the top of the frog rail. Using non-optimal, commercially available transducers coupled with the low-frequency/SAFT approach, preliminary evaluations were conducted to study the effects of the material microstructure on ultrasonic propagation, sensitivity and resolution in thick section frog components with machined side-drilled holes. Results from this study will be presented and discussed. Introduction: Ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) has a long and successful history of application to the rail networks used by freight and high-speed rail services. This form of inspection is now routinely performed using special test "cars", such as those developed and operated by Sperry Rail Services and several other vendors. Such systems can work well for the inspection of normal rails. However, problems are encountered when a car passes over the short lengths of Manganese steel rail (known as "frogs" in railroad acumen) used at critical locations in the railroad network. The need for an effective and reliable means for pre-service examination of coarse-grained, thick-section, Manganese (Mn) steel frog components in both the freight and high-speed rail industries is well established. In-service examinations consist of visual inspections only, as conventional inspection methods are ineffective. Typically, by the time a defect or flaw is visually detected, the structural integrity of the component may already be compromised and immediate repair or replacement is required. Periodically, frogs are received inherently flawed from a manufacturer, and put into service, as most rail road operators do not have a means to conduct pre-service examinations once these components are received. The problem generates a more significant impact when the cost of labor for repair and/or replacement is then added to the equation. In some cases, warranty claims cannot be made due to the lack of part identification and uncertainty in the root cause of the failure. Accordingly, there is a need for a pre-service inspection methodology that can provide a rapid, cost-effective and non-intrusive inspection capability for detection of defects, flaws, and other anomalies in frog components that eventually lead to premature initiation of cracks or failures of these components during service. At present, X-ray methods are used for full-volumetric examinations of small numbers of frog components prior to shipment from manufacturing plants. This method is time-consuming, costly, and requires special facilities and highly trained personnel for safe operations, precluding manufacturers from inspecting statistically meaningful numbers of frogs for effective quality assurance. This leads to an unacceptable rate of failure in the field, often within the first 6