by Eric Thibodeau, Hydro Quebec, Quebec, Canada
The first of three yearly meetings of the IEEE PES Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC) was held at the IEEE PES 2025 Joint Technical Committee Meeting (JTCM) in Garden Grove, CA, from January 13 to 16, 2025. Here are the highlights from this meeting.
During the meeting, the PSCCC underwent its cyclic leadership transition. The Main Committee members offered warm thanks to James Formea, now Past Chair, for his contributions over six years of service to the PSCCC. Marc Benou has now stepped in as our new Chair, and Craig Palmer has been appointed Vice-Chair. The PSCCC welcomed Eric Thibodeau as its new Secretary, looking forward to benefiting from six years of commitment from a utility member (Hydro-Quebec) in its leadership.
The PSCCC is recognizing the contributions of its long-term members to the committee and the power systems industry through the PSCCC Emeritus Member status. This membership may be awarded to contributors who have either retired or moved on from actively contributing to our committee. During the January meeting, the PSCCC took the opportunity to welcome its fifth Emeritus Member, T.W. Cease. Congratulations to T.W. for all the years he dedicated to PSCCC service.
The Protocols and Communications Architecture Subcommittee (P0) is proud to announce that the P9 Working Group’s efforts led to the publication of IEEE Std C37.118.2, Standard for Synchrophasor Data Transfer for Power Systems, last December.
The standard specifies a communication protocol to be used between phasor measurement units (PMU), phasor data concentrators (PDC), and the systems and applications that use this data. Applications of C37.118.2 will help maintain and improve the reliability of power grids. P0 also announced that it will request a Project Authorization Request (PAR) for an amendment to IEEE Std 2664-2024, Standard for Streaming Telemetry Transport Protocol (STTP). The intent of the amendment is to add a standardized file-based format for offline historical data requests.
All interested parties are welcome to attend the May meeting to become members of the working group responsible for drafting this amendment.
For the first time since the establishment of the PSCCC, we had the great pleasure of welcoming the Optical Fiber Subcommittee (F0) members in person at the same venue. F0 actively meets on a different schedule than the PSCCC and reports to our Main Committee meetings.
The January meeting was a great opportunity to strengthen the links within our organization, and we hope to repeat the experience next year. F0 announced during the meeting that they will request a PAR to undertake the revision of IEEE Std 1591.2, Standard for Testing and Performance of Hardware for All-Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) Fiber Optic Cable.
This revision is due as part of the lifecycle maintenance, given the current publication dates back to 2017. It will be an occasion to review the testing practices and methods specified in this standard.
Finally, the PSCCC is actively searching for contributors for its Wire Line Subcommittee (E0). The subcommittee addresses the aspects of protection and use of all forms of wire line communications systems that serve power stations or may be subject to the influence of electric power or lightning. Several leadership positions are open within this subcommittee and its working groups, and we encourage you to step in!
Tradition continues for the PSCCC to meet jointly with the Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRCC) for the two remaining yearly meetings.
The next joint meeting will occur from May 12 to 15, 2025, in Portland, OR. Details for this meeting can be found on the PSRCC website at https://www.pes-psrc.org/meetings.
The PSCCC will maintain its hybrid format, allowing both virtual and in-person attendance.
If you are interested in joining the PSCCC, please visit our website at https://site.ieee.org/pes-pscc/ and look for the “Join the PSCCC” button!
Follow @IEEE_PES_PSCC on Twitter and IEEE-PES-PSCC on LinkedIn to stay updated with our latest news and announcements!
Biography:
Eric Thibodeau is an Automation Engineer at Hydro-Québec, in the Protection Expertise team. His prior experiences include being Product Manager for Protection products at Gentec, and Software Developer specialized in communication protocols at Eaton. He is involved in the activities of the IEEE Power System Communications and Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC) and IEEE Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRCC). Formerly, he obtained its B.Ing. in Computer Engineering, as well as M.Sc.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Universite de Sherbrooke. While a graduate student, he was also a lecturer in this same institution about network protocols specification and design, network components and architecture as well as electronic power supply design. His main areas of expertise are TCP/IP networking, SCADA communication and cybersecurity, and digital protective relaying. He is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Quebec.
