SIM-X 2023

Anticipating Generation/Transmission Emergencies & Preventing Equipment Damage

A NERC CEH Simulation Course

$500 per day

For the two day, 16-hour course

With 12 hours of simulation time

2023 | Times & Dates Available

2024 | Times & Dates Available

The 9/11 commission concluded “We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities and management.  It is therefore critical to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing the exercise of imagination.”

SIM-X is an innovative and unique training opportunity for NERC-Certified operators including support staff, generator and substation operators, as well as IT and Cyber Security workers. During the 2-day event, operators remotely login to the class and the simulation, allowing participation from any time-zone, and allowing for cross-discipline training opportunities. Recent cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure systems of electric power, petroleum, natural gas, and water are raising concern across utility systems worldwide. From the cyber-attack in Ukraine 2015, to the most recent ransomware attack on a Colonial gasoline pipeline on the US East Coast, the frequency and severity of these attacks is only increasing. Organizations are compelled to prepare these attacks and invest in the resources to defend against cyber threat actors.

SIM-X is an opportunity to participate in realistic drills, similar to the annual Mojave Viper exercises conducted by the US Military, by taking on the roles of both attacker and defender. During these simulations, system operators are encouraged to find vulnerabilities in critical systems or infrastructure. Cyber defenders and other class participants get the opportunity to see how those vulnerabilities can be utilized to cause real, lasting harm to the system. Using that knowledge, participants can evaluate their own systems and determine how to harden defenses in their own organization.

NERC Certified power system operators will be drilled in worst case scenarios where a sophisticated Cyber Attacker has breached a BES Cyber System and is able to maliciously control power system elements.

This workshop will demonstrate how real-time power system simulations can be adapted to enhance a utility’s preparedness for responding to cyber-attacks.

The drill participants will operate a hypothetical power system with hypothetical computer, communications and control systems layered on the geography of Washington State.

Day One: Generation and Transmission Emergencies

• How to operate PowerSimulator
• Managing a System with no EMS/SCADA
• Managing Thermal Overloads
• Capacity Emergencies
• Voltage Collapse Emergencies
• Angle Stability Emergencies
• Extreme Over-voltages

Day Two: Anticipating and Preventing Equipment Damage

• Ukraine Attacks
• Aurora Attack: C-RPA
• Generator Motoring Attack: C-GMA
• Standing Phase Angle Attack: C-SPA
• Malicious Ferranti Rise Attack: C-MFR
• Malicious Circulating MVAr Attack: C-MCM
• Carver Matrix
• Red Hat and Blue Hat Scenarios

Red Team vs Blue Team Drills

The blue team will the play roles of Reliability Coordinator, Transmission Operator, Balancing Authority Operator, Substation Operator and Generator Operator. The red team will play the role of a sophisticated cyber / physical attacker.

The objective of the blue team is to operate the system according to NERC Reliability Standards under normal, emergency and restorative operating conditions.

The red team will attempt to implement malicious control actions due to cyber breaches. The blue team will need to adapt the standard emergency operating procedures to present damage to equipment via over voltages, over loads, extreme shock torques and abnormal frequency violations.

Frederick the Great stated: “He who defends everything defends nothing.” The scenarios will be de-briefed using the CARVER analysis used by the military. This covers Criticality, Accessibility, Recuperability, Vulnerability, Effect and Recognizability.  In these debriefs cross training will take place between power system operators, cyber defenders and system protection experts.

The drills will take place across two days with a total of 16 hours of NERC CEH being provided.

Instructor

David Wilke

Principal Trainer

IncSys

For over 30 years David has primarily been involved with the development and delivery of both new and continuous operator training, real-time market implementation, and advanced application integration into the control room environment.

 

Listen to David Wilke and Robin Podmore discuss and demonstrate a SIM-X scenario:

 

Contact us for class availability, or if you would like to host a class virtually and train your entire department

We are also available for additional dates for the rest of the year to schedule courses based on customer demand.

Quotes from some NERC Certified Operators who have taken SIM-X

“The red vs. blue team exercises were fun as we were watching people react to what we were doing and trying to stay ahead of them when we were the blue team.”

 

“The virtual/Zoom session went so smoothly. Expected more hiccups but it was nicely done.”

 

“I thought the training was very good and the technology worked great. It was great having the opportunity to have this available virtually.”

 

“Great training! The simulator works well and the breakout rooms were awesome too! Great job IncSys/PowerData team.”

 

“Having a partner to do the simulation was good. I found the communication and even peer checking as we worked the system or the problems to be behavior we want in the control room when things are stressful.”

 

“Well done. Especially for virtual and Zoom!”

 

“PowerSimulator 8 is a GREAT improvement! Much easier to use and get from place to place. The addition of the user profiles and the ability to select multiple devices and activate them in sequence allows you to focus on the task and not wait for the system operations to allow you to continue.”

 

“Dave is a really interactive presenter with great knowledge and he has fun with the group too – top marks love his style”

 

“The final simulation with Contingency Analysis was very realistic. After fixing one issue, you may make another contingency worse, and with C/A you wouldn’t see this initially”

 

“The group simulations were great. Being able to bounce ideas off another person added a realistic element, since we do not operate alone in the control room”

 

Good class enjoyed the discussion/lecture. Also especially enjoyed the Red vs Blue simulations. These were fun and engaging”

 

“The simulations really makes you think about how one thing effects the entire system”

 

“Even though they were designed to provide familiarity with the tool and the system, it’s good to have a refresher of some of the more basic concepts like re-dispatching generation to relieve an overload”

 

“As per the usual, the simulation. Also having the breakout rooms was nice and the facilitators were good at getting people shuffled around as they needed.”

 

“PowerSimulator 8. I LOVE IT!!! The thing I noticed first was the addition of the overview displays. The ability to filter and view things differently will be a boon to those using the system for the first time. I think for today’s exercises, I found the Puget/Palouse MVAR Overviews particularly useful. I wish we had such a fast turnaround with our EMS display requests”

 

“I also liked the breakout rooms. It was nice to easily be able to communicate with my teammate while we were observing the other team react”

 

“There’s a lot to it. It’s intuitive, but a definitely takes time to get the hang of. I really appreciated that there were knowledgeable staff available to answer questions as they came up!”

 

“I like the format of interspersing simulations and the peer-to-peer teamwork that adds a lot to the exercises”