Cutting-edge technology is vital for a resilient and secure power network

This article highlights the challenges and necessary procedures to build a reliable and secure power system.
Soon, individuals will see these energy commodity exchanges. The consumer may eventually be able to migrate to a provider selling units at a lower price while maintaining the same meter. That type of digital proliferation will likely be observed soon.
Similarly, someone with extra energy in their resources behind the metre can sell it to the grid for a set price. To declare that the equipment is available for discharge at the stated cost and that levels apply based on pricing at the time of usage, one only has to launch an app. At that point, the equipment is ready to interact with the grid on a platform and start making money for you. Furthermore, while it is working for you and not just sitting around, it is assisting the utility in saving money. The fact that the handshake between the parties involved happens in real-time results in cost savings for the utility in terms of CAPEX and infrastructure.
An aggregator separates the utility and the consumer as the consumer transitions to a prosumer. Technology has allowed several DERs to participate in the conversation and other stakeholders. The fact that many distributed energy sources are renewable is another factor to consider. This makes the grid in a city, state, or nation smart. However, they only sometimes produce when you need them; they do so when it’s breezy and bright. As a result, it needs to be kept somewhere and released when required, necessitating a delicate balance. As a result, managing dynamic systems is necessary.
As a result, the grid will become increasingly sophisticated and efficient. Additionally, that will make it clean. Digital technologies come in various forms, as we can see. Each use case calls for the completion of feedback control. Typically, data for each use case flows from a source to several stakeholders for use in the case. The platform provider must submit data from an app to verify the discharge date. Because of this, information is transferred from an app on a mobile device (Android or iOS) to the platform aggregator, which then has to coordinate the data flow through a smart meter, the internet, or my electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
While discussing the challenges Anil Kadam, Director of Schneider Electric, also states, “There is so much back-and-forth data in this new IoT world that is going to be moving around if this network is not secured.” Somebody somewhere can mischievously switch off all the charging infrastructure or can give a command, so it’s a straightforward and open network. A city, state, or even a whole country could experience a blackout if someone managed to trip off all the residences, detach a primary substation from the grid, or both. As a result, the transaction must be protected.
In this new IoT environment, a tonne of data will be exchanged back and forth. It’s a simple, open network, so anyone can maliciously turn off all the charging infrastructure or issue a command. A blackout could occur in a city, state, or the entire country if someone could trip off all the homes, disconnect a significant substation from the grid, or both. Therefore, the transaction needs to be secured.
So, the systemic view is one aspect, while the equipment view is another. Following are more processes, such as the policy and procedure. Currently, a city’s vast majority of technical systems are managed by an electric utility—the power distribution corporation. However, a large number of additional stakeholders may provide support services to the electric utility, such as productivity growth and efficiency optimisation.

Strong policies and procedures should govern the technical and human systems. The first is the technology that underpins the strategy and process for creating a resilient system. With a policy and a procedure, a technical system can do so much on its own, and with both, it may be possible to create a very secure system.
Technological systems are putting up a lot of hardware and software, but each component has developed with time, and many other products in the background depend on it. As an illustration, I’m creating an energy box with hardware and software. I proclaim that there is a vulnerability in the V1.0 software that is delivered with the Vauxhall phone, and it is time to upgrade it to 2.0 using this. The box initially arrived with 71.0 software on an operating system.
If there is no policy or process to manage the patch or the vulnerability by patching it, there is a wider open loop for someone to join. Second, it is imperative to establish the actor’s identity and whether or not they are authorised, have access, and are readily available within the organisation before executing any instruction.
Role-based access, which refers to all of them, is a necessary stage in the three-step process and must be enabled before the technical systems can function. Given the digital landscape’s rapid expansion and the quantity of digital touch points, we never anticipated that our substations, home automation systems, building automation systems, storage management systems, or even our generation management systems would be connected to the internet. Since we have our internal control mechanisms, we have always assumed that the chemical is secure. But there are lots of innovative technologies being used right now.
In the future, we’d like to use cloud computing because the days of requiring one’s servers and networking storage are long gone. The infrastructure would be provided by a cloud provider, enabling the system to run automatically or to be connected to an external source. Today, it’s likely that everything will be left up to them. The information can be used to provide intelligence for asset performance management, which will be used to carry out asset performance activities or even maintenance.
We shouldn’t presume that our system is secure because of this global connectivity. In addition to the defence’s comprehensive architectural design, continuous threat detection is essential, which includes monitoring data traffic, packet flows, and their causes while also learning over time. This way, if there is even the slightest indication of suspicion, the system will alert the operator. Ideally, people will start acting to prevent things from coming to a standstill.
The technical framework, rules, and practices must all be compatible. After they have been formed, the technological systems must support the policies and processes. As a result, cutting-edge technical solutions must be used to ensure offshore reliability in the utility industry and general smart city operations. Technology and operations experts must have a track record to back them up. Of course, there are a lot of tech-savvy individuals. However, we should increase competence and the number of people who can comprehend operations technology to construct a more reliable and secure system. Then, cyber security concepts should be applied to OT.
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