Cyber security and resilience guidelines for the smart energy operational environment

The energy business sector is undergoing profound changes. The transition to clean energy is underway and society is increasingly reliant on electrical energy. However, the business environment is more risky and mounting competition requires the continual improvement of end-user services.

Simultaneously, the energy sector has accelerated its evolution towards digitization thus heightening its reliance on cyber assets, including systems, controllers and intelligent devices, to manage the delivery of electrical energy.

However, these cyber assets present serious challenges and businesses must determine how to cope with the reality of deliberate cyber attacks as well as how to remain resilient in the face of inadvertent cyber threats arising from personnel mistakes, the complexity of systems, equipment failure and natural disaster. Energy businesses that traditionally addressed only the system engineering process must now include cyber security services and technologies.

This IEC Technology Report provides guidelines to help executives in the smart energy operational environment understand the necessary cyber security policies, procedures and technologies that need to be implemented. It was prepared by the task force on cyber security in the IEC Systems Committee on Smart energy Working Group 3.