Renewable Energy IT Site Development
Industry:
- Renewable Energy
Primary User:
- Renewable Energy Site Owner
Engagement:
- New Site Development Project
Solution:
- NERC-CIP Compatible Design
- Lab Build – Ship to Site
- Installation on Site
- OT Interoperability Test
- Site Documentation
The Root Group collaborated with a leading Renewable Energy owner to design, build and install a redundant, NERC-CIP compliant IT system that was interoperable with the site’s Operating Technology (OT) systems.
Renewable Energy IT Infrastructure Site Design
At the start of the renewable energy site development project, Root Group met with the client to understand what type of site would be built (solar, wind or battery) and to meet the partners that were involved in the site build. In addition, the types of client-preferred IT equipment and vendors were discussed. Root Group was asked to design a fully redundant system architecture that would work with the Operation Technology (OT) equipment, battery management system and controllers. Since Root Group has experience with all of this equipment and their vendors, we adapted our “Site Standardization” reference architecture based on best practices to meet the client’s selected equipment and partners’ systems.
Other considerations that Root Group incorporated during these design discussions were:
- The budget for the project
- The budget for operating and maintaining the site
- The network/firewall monitoring system
- Redundant power supplies and switches
- Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) with capacity for additional equipment
- Room temperature monitoring system
- A proven, base rack design
- A two-server-to-storage shared storage system
- Virtual Machine (VM) sizing to accommodate the site applications
- A Historian Server for site data (on premise or cloud)
- Security Operations Monitoring system
Root Group’s Lab Build Process
Once the architecture design was approved, the equipment was ordered and shipped to Root Group’s office for the “Lab Build” process. The customer specific rack and UPS were setup so power is available to the equipment during the build out. Then the IT equipment was installed in the rack and configured in the clean environment of the lab versus the disheveled construction site. This Lab Build approach also reduced the cost of travel and engineering time on site where working conditions are very difficult.
The critical security-oriented firewall rules and network design were built based on the configuration information provided by the partners to meet federal NERC CIP guidelines. Then the rules and design documents were sent to the NERC CIP company who reviews and audits them to confirm compliance. All the equipment and cables were integrated and labeled for clear identification.
As the project proceeded, Root Group followed a standard project approach using a RACI chart checklist and created a large body of documents including design documents, asset management and documentation, standard operating procedures, a site security policy, and an incidence response plan that were submitted later for site certification.
Installation at the Renewable Energy Site
The entire integrated IT equipment and rack was then shipped and the installation began at the renewable energy site. Root Group coordinated with other project workstreams to be sure the ISP had been installed and permanent power was available when the rack arrived. The installation activities include setting up the networking between all the partners equipment, VPN, Kernal-based Virtual Machine (KVM), out-of-band management and room environment alert systems.
Once the IT control room systems were all configured, the site had to be certified to meet NERC CIP compliance. Root Group sent all the network drawings, rack elevation and the firewall rules to the NERC CIP company doing the filing for the Federal agency. Root Group was asked to provide their Flexible Managed Service to monitor the network and security for the site, so Root Group set up the monitoring instances on all the equipment and implemented the rapid-response ticketing system. The Flexible Management System automatically sends alerts when there is an issue with the site equipment and a Root Group engineer responds under Service Level Agreement (SLA) timeframes to trouble- shoot and make changes to resolve the problem. This service can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in utility downtime by providing experienced engineers to get systems back online.
Results and Benefits
With Root Group’s deep technical expertise, based on work on over 100 renewable energy sites, the site architecture is built with dependable interoperability between IT and OT renewable partners and vendors.
By applying Root Group’s Site Standardization reference architecture, the renewable energy site owner receives a repeatable IT system design that can be used on numerous sites in the future. Financially, this represents a Predictive Cost Model that can lower site build costs.
The Lab Build approach of the IT systems results in a reduction in the on-site services needed, since the entire integrated rack has been built and tested prior to shipment.
Overall, this means that the renewable site owners will see a reduced installation time on projects from start to end.
