The Department of Energy Office of Electricity (DOE-OE) partners with INL on the Protective Relay Permissive Communication (PRPC) program to develop emerging solutions to protect the modern power grid from cyber and physical threats. One of the most important components of the electric power grid is the protective relay. When equipment fails or dangerous actions are initiated, relays protect power systems from damage. Protective relays provide protection against conditions on the power grid which could negatively affect the grid, damage equipment, or cause loss of life.
The PRPC program studies ways to transition protective relay equipment to a limited state. In a limited state, only the most essential relay functions operate. This constrained state represents an additional depth of defense of cybersecurity, while maintaining important business functions.
The Protective Relay Permissive Communications (PRPC) program objective is to deliver a broad recommendation to industry on improving cybersecurity depth-of-defense for protective relays, and a simple technology device to support relay owners that has minimal impact to existing critical CIP requirements. The diagram below shows how the program works.