Kaukauna Utilities Commitment to Reliability During Times of Uncertainty
March 2022
- The U.S. electric power industry, including Kaukauna Utilities, has an essential responsibility to protect the physical integrity of the electric grid. We take our responsibility very seriously.
- All water infrastructure within the KU service territory utilizes extensive physical security measures. In 2021, a Risk and Resiliency Assessment was completed on the full water supply system.
- The threat of attacks on critical infrastructure is a hot topic in the news right now, but cybersecurity has been a top priority in our industry for years.
- Thousands of men and women work hard every day to ensure Americans get the power and water they need, when they need it. Utilities have prepared for, prevented, and responded to attacks while managing to keep the lights on and water running. This ethic of security has existed for decades, during war and peace time, and is coupled with measures to create redundancy and resiliency should an attack occur despite our protections.
- Recently, stories by “60 Minutes” and other news outlets have highlighted the critical importance of this issue and, understandably, raised concern. It should be noted, however, that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report mentioned in some of these stories was released back in 2014. Significant work has been accomplished since that time, including massive private and federal investments in grid cyber response and recovery.
- Our industry works closely with federal government partners, including FERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security, on matters of critical infrastructure protection.
- In fact, the electric power industry is the only U.S. critical infrastructure sector with mandatory and enforceable federal cybersecurity standards and has been proactive in partnering with the government and private-sector leaders on preparation, prevention and detection, information sharing, and response and recovery to secure our systems.
- At the regional level, our utility’s electric distribution system is part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which is responsible for grid operations and reliability in 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba. MISO regularly conducts drills to be able to respond to the forced outage of bulk generation and transmission. It also regularly conducts cybersecurity drills.
- WPPI Energy, our utility’s wholesale electric power supplier, also regularly conducts emergency response drills and exercises, and has in place redundant capabilities to operate the system from backup locations if needed in the event of emergency.
- Together with NERC and the federal Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), WPPI Energy, MISO and many other utility organizations across the nation regularly engage in GridEx simulations to test our preparedness and resilience against a major physical or cyberattack.
- In Wisconsin, WPPI Energy, along with the state’s other major power companies, participates in a public-private partnership led by the Department of Military Affairs and the Wisconsin National Guard. The group plans and maintains detailed protection strategies for the state’s critical infrastructure in the face of large-scale threats. Based on this model, many other states are adopting a similar approach.
- Locally, our utility:
- Has an extraordinary record of reliability with our electric and water distribution system.
- Maintains site-specific measures to ensure the physical security of our distribution assets.
- Actively plans for emergency situations that could impact our ability to deliver power and water.
- Recently launched an Outage Management System so customers can stay informed on power outages at their service address via text messages – including restoration times, causes, etc.
- And, whether responding to a cyberattack or adverse weather event, during significant outage events, utilities including KU can turn to our industry’s mutual assistance program, backed by thousands of fellow utilities across the nation, to help restore power efficiently.
- In short, the track record of our utility on this matter, as well as that of the overall U.S. utility industry, is sound.
While no single local solution on its own can make the grid universally safe and secure from large-scale threat or disaster, our cyber and physical security response is appropriately focused on risk management and continuous improvement to make our electric and water systems stronger, more reliable, and more resilient.
