Method and system for cryptographically enabling and disabling lockouts for critical operations in a smart grid network

• Main Authors: Hilbert Aditi, St. Johns Michael
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.08.2017
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVING AN IMPACT ONOTHER TECHNOLOGY AREAS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SYSTEMS FOR REGULATING ELECTRIC OR MAGNETIC VARIABLES; SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORKOPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FORIMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION,DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS

A method for locking out a remote terminal unit includes: receiving a lockout request, wherein the lockout request includes at least a public key associated with a user, a user identifier, and a terminal identifier; identifying a user profile associated with the user based on the user identifier included in the received lockout request; verifying the public key included in the received lockout request and permission for the user to lockout a remote terminal unit associated with the terminal identifier included in the received lockout request based on data included in the identified user profile; generating a lockout permit, wherein the lockout permit includes at least the public key included in the received lockout request; and transmitting at least a lockout request and the generated lockout permit, wherein the lockout request includes an instruction to place a lockout on the remote terminal unit.