• The U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation to enhance smart grid infrastructure security. HR 3674, the Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness Act of 2011 (the “PRECISE Act”), would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks to critical infrastructure, including in smart grid networks. The legislation would also establish the National Information Sharing Organization (NISO), a private-sector-controlled, not-for-profit organization to facilitate best practices, provide technical assistance, and enable the sharing of cyber-threat information, all while safeguarding privacy. The text of HR 3674 is available here.
  • On December 21, 2011, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced nearly $7 million in research and development funding that will help to reduce the current costs of electric vehicle (EV) chargers by 50% over the next three years. Selected manufacturers will work to improve the development and design of charging equipment with smart charging capabilities that can help alleviate the strain that EVs put on electrical grid capacity. Two of the four selected projects will focus on improving EV chargers that attach to consumers’ homes. The other two projects will focus on chargers used at commercial and public locations where several vehicles may change at once, such as fleets of delivery vehicles. The DOE’s announcement of the funding is available here.
  • The European Commission last week established the “eHealth Network,” which will bring together various regulators from member countries to work on “common orientations for eHealth.” The goal for the Network will be to promote interoperability of electronic health systems by adopting guidelines on a minimum set of common data to be included in patient summaries, on methods to enable the use of medical information for public health and medical research, and on common identification and authentication measures to ensure transferability of data in cross-border initiatives. More information about the initiative is available here.