New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Renewable sector must integrate cybersecurity
16/3/2022
6 min read
Feature
The growth of renewable and distributed energy systems has not been matched by the adoption of cybersecurity measures to the same levels as those used in traditional utility networks – so far. Sarah Gibbons investigates.
A lack of renewable energy industry cybersecurity standards has seen green power producers ‘fly under the radar of regulation’ when developing their systems and technologies, a senior US cybersecurity consultant, and other industry experts, are warning. Peter Lund of Industrial Defender, a cybersecurity solutions provider for utility and energy companies based in Massachusetts, US, says these failings need addressing to avoid catastrophic outages, increased consumer costs or even crippled economies, as renewable energy becomes ever more important in power generation mixes.
The US’ Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is one group sounding the alarm. It has warned that, while traditional utilities are usually governed by national or international infrastructure technical standards, which require some installation of cybersecurity systems, the complexity of green energy supply chains, coupled with an increasing reliance on digitalisation, has raised risk levels.
An increased attack surface offered by complex renewable energy networks requires a proactive ‘secure by design’ approach to cybersecurity rather than the ‘bolt-on afterwards’ attitude that currently prevails as companies race to get their products onstream, it warns.