UK warned of cyber threat

20 March 2015


The electricity system's increasing reliance on IT will heighten the risk of cyber attacks from hackers, according to a panel of UK lawmakers.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee says that radical changes to the electricity landscape resulting from advances in technology and the need to decarbonise will affect the resilience of the power system.

It said that new and emerging threats to resilience should be identified as early as possible, and that a flexible, agile, and well-interconnected electricity system should be developed to improve resistance to threats.

Chair of the Committee, Lord Selborne, said that overall the resilience of the UK's power system is "robust". But he added that "new and unchartered territory" was being entered. "The government must stay ahead of the game, with dedicated investment into research and development across a wide range of technologies, and constant alertness to cyber threats," said Lord Selborne. "Only then can the government ensure that it can weather any storm, and continue to keep the lights on in the long-term."

The Committee also examined the UK's capacity margin and said that the need for National Grid to resort to tender for additional capacity had resulted in additional costs for consumers. It has urged the government to improve its long-term planning and said that it was not acceptable to "sail so close to the wind".

"The ultimate aim has to be to achieve resilience over the long term and without allowing consumer costs to spiral unnecessarily," said Dr. Simon Harrison of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). "Resilience is not achieved by picking off and solving individual problems but results from the inter-play of the inter-related components and factors that form the whole electricity system."

The challenges faced by the electricity system include large amounts of self-dispatching renewable generation, the potential electrification of transport and space heating, and the rise of the smart consumer and smart home, said Harrison. He added: "These increase complexity and require a level of engineering coordination and integration that the current industry structure and market regime does not provide. In turn this increased complexity presents potentially substantially increased vulnerability to cyber threats."

Sian Crampsie



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