Black & Veatch assisted CPS Energy with improving its network reliability and security to support the utility’s energy management system and future smart grid applications. CPS Energy needed a reliable network to support mission critical systems and to work in coordination with the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a protocol known as NERC-CIP.

Black & Veatch recommended a dedicated 10 gigabit Ethernet sub-network that would reach across metropolitan San Antonio, Texas, and support the utility’s mission critical and non-mission critical power delivery needs.

The design segments mission critical and non-mission critical networks into two separate networks instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. This allows the network to be economically scalable, allowing it to address additional redundancy and security requirements as needs grow. This approach also helps isolate network problems, such as broadcasts, that otherwise could negatively affect the entire network.

“Black & Veatch helped both identify what we needed to put in place to maintain CIP compliance, which ended up being a new network, as well as all the details behind the network. Black & Veatch took us through getting it up and running, and ultimately met the goal of staying compliant. What gives me the most pride is that we hit so many challenges along the way, and with Black & Veatch, we worked through them.”

Les Barrow, Senior Director - Energy Market Operations, CPS Energy