Dec. 18 – Strengthening security and responsiveness to critical network infrastructure caused by natural events, mechanical error, human error, and cyber attacks is something on which Enea has been working with some network operators in Europe, the Norwegian Tso Lyse, other research institutes and foreign universities and Israeli power grids, water and telecoms operators. Representing Italy, the partner is Selex, of the Finmeccanica Group. In a workshop held in Rome (which saw the participation of experts from the Universities of Coimbra, Surrey, and Roma Tre) the results obtained to date were presented and made available to operators of “critical” infrastructure (power grids, gas or telecoms), local governments and the National Guards. They were presented with a Decision Support System, a system of continuous monitoring and decision support in crisis. “In the face of adverse natural event, fault or even cyber attacks, the proper operation and management skills are key to not overload the whole system. Moreover, growing production from renewable sources and the evolution towards smart grids make the system overall more ‘vulnerable’. This was our starting point – explains researcher Michele Minichino of Enea – for developing advanced systems to minimize risks and maximize efficiency of the networks and Scada (Supervision And Data Acquisition), which are the ‘nervous system’ of all infrastructure.” For the project, Enea is building a simulation center between Casaccia, Palermo and Bari where researchers develop and run scenarios for planning and operating active electrical, water and gas networks (with distributed generation and storage systems). Activities in this area started several years ago with the European project “Micie” and are continuing with the new project, “CockpitCI” focused on cyber security. (Red)
