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The country’s electric co-ops have been instrumental in providing a market-ready early warning system that detects cyberattacks on utilities. Essence 2.0 was developed through work by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the co-ops’ national trade association, as part of its efforts to defend the nation’s energy supply from unknown, emerging threats.

The system provides “black box” sensing technology that measures the ongoing behavior of operations. Many cyberattacks lay dormant on a system for months before they are identified and mitigated. Essence 2.0 acts as a monitoring tool that accelerates the detection of any anomalies on the system that could indicate a breach.

Developed by NRECA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, BlackByte Cyber Security, LLC, and Referentia Systems, the program was initiated in 2014. Essence 2.0 was introduced in 2020 and third-party evaluation has confirmed that the program does continuously assess the electric power grid for anything out of the ordinary, using a set of algorithms. When something unusual is detected, the technology provides immediate, real-time indicators.

“Being able to identify emerging threats in real time is the most important element of this approach so that electric cooperatives and other users can adapt quickly — not weeks later — to protect their systems,” said Emma Stewart, chief scientist at NRECA.

Limon-based Mountain View Electric Association launched a pilot program for a select number of its consumer-members who own electric vehicles.

The 12-month SmartCharge MVEA program in partnership with FleetCarma is aimed at helping the electric distribution co-op plan for future and increased adoption of EVs among consumer-members in the co-op’s service territory. The co-op wants more data on how, when and where EV owners charge their vehicles so it can plan for the impact on its electric system.

Here’s how it works: Participants with a compatible EVs are given a small device to plug into their EV onboard diagnostic port that tracks and pinpoints charging consumption on the grid. In addition to sending this data to MVEA, the device also provides analytics to the EV owner about the vehicle and use. Participants can track things such as their EV’s trip data, auxiliary load, battery health and the breakdown of charging from different charger levels.

The charging data collected over the 12-month study period will help MVEA plan and manage the grid to ensure EV charging remains reliable for everyone.

Throughout April, Gunnison-based electric cooperative Gunnison County Electric Association contracted with UAV Recon to perform a system check of all 1,096 miles of GCEA distribution lines and power poles using drones. This is the second year of the co-op’s three-year drone inspection project.

This innovative use of drones is becoming more common among Colorado’s electric cooperatives, as drones can get to the hard-to-access regions in electric co-op service territories.

GCEA’s goals with this project are to identify maintenance issues to ensure better system reliability and to assist the co-op in fire mitigation efforts. The drone footage allows crews to be more efficient, as the data collected shows exactly where crews need to go to repair or troubleshoot.

“It also allows us to have pictures of all the pole top assemblies to assist our staking engineers,” GCEA Member Relations Supervisor Alliy Sahagun said. “With walking line inspections, [crews] can never see the pole top or the top of a cross arm where most of the decay will show. A drone shows all aspects of the structure.”

So far this inspection period, the photos collected across GCEA territory have revealed only a few issues that need to be addressed quickly, such as a few “danger trees,” (trees that could potentially fall into power lines and equipment, sparking a wildfire) and pins ready to fall out of insulators.

GCEA alerted consumer-members of the drone inspections via press releases, social media postings and ads in the local newspaper.

In February, Durango-based electric cooperative La Plata Electric Association announced exciting electric vehicle news for two communities it serves.

The town of Bayfield and LPEA joined together to bring 24/7 access to a free Level II EV charging station located in Bayfield’s town hall parking lot. A grant from the Colorado Energy Office’s Charge Ahead Program and LPEA funding made the charging station possible.

Located one-half mile from Highway 160 — one of the EV charging corridors identified by the CEO — the station brings charging access to regional travelers as well as local residents. It has spots for two vehicles to charge at the same time and can deliver a full charge in about 4 hours. The station will have zero fees until Labor Day 2021.

And to the west in nearby Durango, the city’s first-ever EV DC fast-charging station was approved for construction and is expected to be energized by June 2021. The station will be located in the Durango Transit Center parking lot, next to the two existing Level II charging stations. The DC fast chargers will deliver a full charge in approximately 20 minutes, compared to the 4 hours that it takes a Level II charger.

LPEA is certain these two innovative EV charging infrastructure updates to its communities will encourage people to make the switch to EVs.

Steamboat Springs-based electric cooperative Yampa Valley Electric Association unveiled and energized a new EV charging station on February 8.

YVEA’s partnership with Routt County, the town of Yampa, the Department of Local Affairs, the Colorado Energy Office and Travelodge by Wyndham brought the Level 3 EV charging station to the area. Located at the Travelodge in Yampa’s central business district, the fast charger will connect the important travel corridor along Colorado Highway 131. It will also connect Yampa to Meeker along the Flattops Scenic Byway.

This is the second grant YVEA received through the CEO’s Charge Ahead Colorado program. The first grant in 2019 helped install two EV charging stations at YVEA’s campuses in Craig and Steamboat Springs. The EV charging station in Craig was the first public charging station in Moffat County.

“EVs will benefit our cooperative, membership, communities and environment as we strive to ‘electrify everything,’” YVEA CEO and General Manager Steve Johnson said.