Cyber security challenges in Smart Grids

Abstract

The introduction of telecommunication in the energy grid, leading the way towards Smart Grids, challenges the way safe operations have traditionally been assured in the energy sector. New cyber security challenges emerge, especially related to privacy, connectivity and security management, and these need to be properly addressed. Existing cyber security technology and good practice mainly come from the traditional telecommunication environment where the requirements on safety and availability are less strict. For Smart Grids, lessons can be learned from the oil and gas industry on how they have dealt with security challenges in their implementation of integrated operations. Still, Smart Grids face a slightly different reality, due to their extensive geographical distribution and the enormous number of end-users. The contribution of this paper is a survey of cyber security challenges for Smart Grids, together with a roadmap of how these challenges must be addressed in the near future.