Vulnerability of the European electrical infrastructure appears to be growing due to several factors:
- demand is always growing, and, although this growth may be forecast, it cannot be anytime easily faced;
- transactions increase, following electrical system liberalisation, and this involves operating the whole infrastructure closer to the system capacity and security limits;
- an increased control systems complexity, required for secure system operation, may in turn raise system vulnerability, due both to accidental faults and malicious attacks;
- critical infrastructures, and the electrical system primarily, are well known to be a privileged target in warfare, as well as terrorist attacks.
In recent years, both Europe and America have experienced a significant number of huge blackouts, whose frequency and impact looks progressively growing. These events had common roots in the fact that current risk assessment methodologies and current system controls appear to be no longer adequate. Beyond the growing complexity of the electrical system as a whole, two main reasons can be listed:
- system analysis procedures based on these methodologies did not identify security threats emerging from failures of critical physical components;
- on-line controls were not able to avoid system collapse.
This report provides a state-of-the-art of the technology on both regards:
- as far as risk assessment methodologies are concerned, an overview of the conceptual power system reliability framework is provided, and the current N-1 principle for risk assessment in power systems is introduced, together with off-the-shelf enforcement methodologies, like optimal power flow. Emerging methodologies for dynamic security assessment are also discussed. The power system reliability approach is compared with the global approach to dependability introduced by computer scientists, and the conceptual clashes pointed out. Ways ahead to conciliate both views are outlined.
- concerning power system controls, the report overviews the existing defense plans, making specific reference to the current Italian situation. The two major recent blackout events in the American North East and Italy are analysed, and the drawbacks of the existing arrangements and the installed control systems are discussed. Emerging technologies, such as phasor measurement units and wide area protection are introduced. Their likely impact on the existing control room is discussed. Finally, potential cyber vulnerabilities of the new control systems are introduced, the role of communication standards in that context is discussed, and an overview of the current state of the art is presented.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit
