Scientists from the University of Illinois, Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Washington State University together with electricity companies will be involved for the next five years in developing controls and sensors for the national power network.

The project follows the largest blackout in U.S. History, which left millions of people in Canada without power in August 2003.

"It addresses what we feel is a significant national problem" said Carl Landwehr, director of the National Science Foundation's Cyber Trust program, which provided the grant.

He also added that the solution should be applied not only for the power grid, but for the entire process of implementing secure computer systems.

William H. Sanders, director of the Information Trust Institute, stated that, although the regrettable incident in 2003 was just an accident, the controls and computer software are not adequate for facing such a major problem. Also, he pointed out that patching is not a long term solution, even if the immediate costs are lower.

Last, but not least, right after the 2003 blackout, President Bush had the final saying, calling the system "antiquated", which gave the government serious thoughts about investing some money for research purposes. The results should come out in about five years.


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