Engineers to Work on Cybersecurity for Systems Linking Solar Power to Grid

Distinguished Professor Alan Mantooth of the University of Arkansas received a $3.6 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office to advance technologies that integrate solar power systems to the national power grid. Mantooth and engineering researchers at the university’s National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission will lead a large, multi-institutional research group that will develop systems to protect solar technologies from cyberattack. As U.S. energy policy shifts toward more diverse sources, particularly solar, the Energy Department understands the critical importance of protecting these systems and technologies, said Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and principal investigator for the project. Our group is nicely qualified to address these problems. We’re already developing systems to protect the power grid from cyberattack, and this work will be a logical extension of that effort.