Ritmul actual al dezvolării infrastructurii sistemului de gaze naturale expune ţara noastră la riscul insecurităţii energetice pe termen lung, în cazul unor scenarii adverse previzibile.
Disponibilul pentru consum s-ar putea reduce cu 20% în 2020 şi cu peste 30% în 2030, dacă ar fi finalizate doar proiectele pentru care s-a decis definitiv investiţia, potrivit studiului „Perspectivele gazelor naturale în România”, lansat marți de Federația Patronală Petrol și Gaze (FPPG).
„Scenariul unei întreruperi prelungite a livrărilor de gaze prin Ucraina în lunile ianuarie-februarie indică un risc de securitate energetică pentru România”, spune studiul.
Cel mai mare aport intern de securitate a aprovizionării îl pot avea zăcămintele din Marea Neagră, în orizontul anului 2030.
Statul român ar trebui să subvenționeze de la buget extinderea rețelelor de distribuție a gazelor naturale și racordarea la acestea a consumatorilor vulnerabili, să acorde subvenții în baza programului Rabla Plus și pentru vehicule pe gaz comprimat, să sprijine industria petrochimică și să reintroducă o taxă de mediu pentru mașinile poluante, care funcționează cu carburanți convenționali, se arată într-un studiu elaborat de consultantul Vasile Iuga și de Radu Dudău, cofondator și director al think-tank-ului Policy Energy Group.
Potrivit sursei citate, pentru a utiliza la valoare adăugată mărită și în condiții sustenabile gazele naturale de producție internă, este oportună sprijinirea consumului sustenabil de gaze în producerea energiei electrice, în industria chimică și petrochimică, precum și în sectorul transporturilor. De asemenea, ar trebuie sprijinit accesul unui număr mai mare de consumatori români la rețeaua de gaze naturale.
This report analyzes the current natural gas sector from the point of view of reserves, infrastructure and market setup. The report also addresses the prospects for the evolution of diferent segments of natural gas consumption by 2030 and provides appropriate policy and regulation recommendations which would lead to the value-added capitalization, on the Romanian Market, of the expected Black Sea natural gas production but also of onshore deposits.
With an annual production of nearly 11 bcm in 2016, Romania is the most important natural gas producer in Eastern Europe. Annual imports in the past years amounted to around 10% of consumption, necessary to cover the increased demand of winter months. Proven natural reserves were around 101 bcm in 2015 which means that they will be exhausted in the next 15 to 20 years at current consumption and replacement rates. Developing new natural gas resources and increasing the rate of recovery from existing deposits requires substantial investment.
The BRUA gas pipeline will be an essential development of the national gas transmission system (NTS). The pipeline aims at increasing the security of Romania‘s natural gas supply through access to new sources and will allow transit to the Central European markets for the natural gas production from the Caspian Basin (via the Romania-Bulgaria interconnector and the future interconnector Bulgaria-Greece, Romania will have access to the Southern Gas Corridor). At the same time, BRUA can represent an access corridor to the European markets of part of the potential natural gas production from the Black Sea.The interconnection of our country to the regional gas transmission systems is an essential step in the development of the NTS and for its integration in the European market. In addition to being an obligation within the European Union, the interconnection and harmonization of operating rules brings economic, trade, political and energy security benefits.
The paper discusses the role and responsibilities that Romania will have during its 2019 Presidency of the Council of the EU, as well as the opportunities and means that the Presidency offers Romania to advance its own energy policy priorities. While the EU agenda is largely set by the President of the European Council along with government leaders, the rotating Presidency is diacritical in implementing the agenda. In effect, Romania will have the tasks of representing the Council in relations with the other EU institutions in negotiations on legislative files, and of organizing and chairing meetings in different Council configurations and preparatory bodies.
Member states holding the presidency work close together in groups of three called trios. Romania will be in trio with Finland and Croatia. They ought to agree on long-term policy goals that are to be promoted in addition to what is already set as EU agenda. As such, matters of regional relevance can be promoted within the trio.
Three line of energy policy stand out as particularly suitable to be promoted by Romania during its EU Presidency: protection of vulnerable consumers and mitigation of energy poverty based on competitive, energy markets and targeted social aid; energy efficiency; and promotion of digital energy. In order to be able to make a solid case for its priorities, Romania must prepare a robust and persuasive draft of the National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021-2030, which must be submitted by the end of 2018. The Plan must be consistent with EU laws and long-term commitments, and also delineate areas of substantive regional cooperation.
The UK is expected to leave the EU during the Romanian Presidency. Right after the presumed British departure, a special summit will take place in Sibiu, Romania, on 30 March 2019, with expectations to forge a more cohesive Union. Finally, the fact that the Romanian Presidency will fall in the period of elections for the European Parliament may offer Romanian some more room to advertise its priorities
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an autonomous agency that was established in November 1974. It has 29 member states from EU and all over the world (Romania not being amongst them). According to its statute, its primary mandate is twofold: to promote energy security amongst its member countries through collective response to physical disruptions in oil supply, and to provide authoritative research and analysis on ways to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its member countries and beyond. The IEA carries out a comprehensive program of energy cooperation among its member countries, which are obliged at all times to hold oil stocks equivalent to 90 days of its net imports.
The IEA deems energy efficiency’s role as central in any scenario of global energy transition. [1] In a world struggling to find its way between conventional and non- conventional approaches to energy, IEA sees energy efficiency as the most available, secure and affordable resource. Although not an IEA member, Romania has every reason to find valuable policy anchors in this self-sustainable and self-empowering global trend.
How did energy efficiency fare in 2016? What business models are driving greater scale results? According to IEA, the global energy intensity continues to fall, as the world has kept generating more value from a KWh. That means the world is able to produce more GDP per unit of energy consumed. This global efficiency gain was USD 2.2 trillion in 2016 – equal to twice the size of the Australian economy, 1.8% less than the previous year.
Although the current level of efficiency gains needs to be sustained by policy measures in order to keep the favorable trend, data show that consistent upholding and implementing of energy efficiency policies are indeed yielding results in the IEA member states. There is considerable potential to achieve further energy savings by establishing or strengthening policy standards.
There are two main energy efficiency drivers at work in the global economy, with different degrees of policy dependence. The main features of each are briefly presented below.
The first driver is residential efficiency, which has a significant degree of policy dependency. This is a driver mainly based on gas consumption, since it has very much to do with space heating and building improvement. In Romania, it would be very much enabled by the actions of the municipalities and other public stakeholders that can initiate and implement such measures, coupled with access to EU finance and from other institutional or private financiers.
The electricity gain for the residential segment is another important part of the residential driver, that can only be enabled and put to work by through proper regulations. ANRE could enable the mechanics of this driver to come into play by legislating on distributed generation by residential players more proactively and realistically (i.e., the status of the prosumers, feed-in tariffs, smart metering). Utility companies and services supply companies (as Energy Services Companies – ESCOs) also have an important role in building and enhancing the residential efficiency gains, by creating and growing a market for “smart home” services.
Such a set of articulated actions by stakeholders and the regulator would be very suitable for the Romanian model, and can facilitate the management of peak gas demand from import, and thus improve short-term energy security. According to IEA, this set of strategies has proved successful in UK and Germany, traditionally gas intensive markets.
The industrial efficiency driver has a lesser degree of policy dependency, and is much more anchored in a country’s economic landscape. It consists in implementing technical and innovative solutions to improve electricity and gas use by the industrial operators, in partnerships with ESCOs, along with the introduction of renewables in the source mix. This driver is enabled by an increasing demand for industrial competitiveness, combined with ESCOs’ strategy to create and build a sustainable energy efficiency market designed for industrial operators (industrial lighting solutions, reactive energy management, proactive energy auditing and management, etc).
The role of the regulator and the state would be to facilitate and encourage investment in such solutions by both industrial players and ESCOs through recognizing and incentivizing, including access to EU financing and favorable tax treatment. This set of strategies would be equally suitable for industrialized and emerging economies, such as Romania, where high economic growth is accompanied by high energy consumption.
So how could Romania capitalize on such consistent evidence about how energy efficiency can actually work to the benefit of a state and its energy stakeholders? Below are five answers:
1. Sustained and consistent energy efficiency measures would generate more GDP for the same energy unit consumed.
As described above, the global energy intensity decline is a proven fact. A higher inclusion of renewable energy into the energy mix would also help reduce carbon emissions, enhancing the positive complementarity effect. Such policies would have to be consistent and span across the regulatory cycles; however, results do show up and are proven by the IEA experience.
In some energy-intensive industries, such as steel, average energy efficiency has improved sharply as a result of expanding new production capacities especially in emerging economies, as new facilities tend to be much more efficient than old ones.
2. Energy efficiency strengthens energy security both for short-term needs and long-term objectives.
One way in which energy efficiency can benefit Romania’s energy security is by reducing its reliance on imported gas and even lowering such imports. Energy efficiency also reduces the likelihood of supply interruptions, both in gas and electricity. This results from managing gas peak demand more easily and strengthening the short-term energy security in harsh weather conditions.
Energy efficiency improvements in seasonal gas demands, specifically for space heating, are largely responsible for reducing the severity of demand peaks. Short-term energy security requires the energy system to react promptly to sudden shortages of supply, changes in market conditions or government intervention via emergency measures to maintain system balance. Long-term benefits also come from enhanced predictability year after year in the gas consumption, with commercial effects in the import strategy, and less pressure on maintaining electrical grids, which can improve stability and security of supply.
3. Energy efficiency can help reduce distribution tariffs.
The investment needed for grid stability in maintenance and repair could see some decrease by involving the industry operators in monitoring and managing peak demands and reactive energy flows into the grid.
At the same time, investment encouragement and recognition policy in both gas and electricity sectors by large-scale roll out of smart metering and digitalization has a similar effect in the medium- to long-run, coupled with improved performance indicators, all in favor of the end clients. Management of gas storage costs can also be improved, with positive effect on tariffs.
4. Energy efficiency helps reduce the impact of price volatility in the industry.
According to IEA, energy use per unit of economic output in the industrial sector fell by nearly 20% between 2000 and 2016. The declines are similar both in the IEA member countries and other major emerging economies. In some energy- intensive industries, such as aluminum, cement and steel, also present in Romania, average energy efficiency has improved sharply on account of new facilities, which tend to be much more efficient than old ones. In these industries, efficiency gains reduce the impact of volatile energy prices on competitiveness by improving predictability and commercial position towards suppliers and producers and decreasing acquisition on spot markets.
5. Energy efficiency can help create more jobs in the energy industry.
According to IEA, over 1 million people are now employed by ESCOs around the world. Energy efficiency has become a tradeable commodity in several countries. Digital technology is expected to enhance the ability for energy efficiency to participate in electricity markets. The deployment of connected devices is growing, which will impact energy efficiency spread among many industries.
As a member of the FEL-100 community (the Future Energy Leaders program of the World Energy Council) and as a coleader of the Energy Access Taskforce within this community, I recently attended the World Energy Week in Lisbon, to present the taskforce’s activity of this year.
Energy Poverty is a concept that has only recently become an important topic on the public agenda in Romania. Nonetheless, the issue has been addressed at global level over the past decades.
The most common definition of energy poverty refers to a lack of access to modern energy services. Though apparently simple, the definition is somewhat confusing, especially when applied to people in the developed regions of the world. It is therefore important to distinguish and tackle separately the two main issues inherent to the concept of energy poverty: energy access and fuel poverty.
Energy access designates the lack of physical connection to the energy grids (centralized or decentralized), hence the lack of infrastructure that ensures energy access – in effect, electricity access in the first place.
Although one may say this is the most important problem and perhaps the only real one regarding energy poverty, energy access is actually only part of the issue. Fuel poverty represents the situation of not being able to afford energy services and/or to keep adequately warm at affordable prices.
Energy Poverty Effects
The real effects of energy poverty (regardless whether energy access or fuel poverty) are hard to quantify and measure. However, some obvious aspects can be observed.
The most common effects are related to social marginalization, health conditions caused by insufficient heating or improper cooking conditions, psychological problems, significantly lower educational accomplishment and higher unemployment rate.
Fuel poverty adds a “cycle of debt” issue (that is, indebtedness resulting from unaffordable energy costs and the effort to avoid disconnection), penalties and grid disconnection (in some countries, bad debtors are blacklisted for future renting or buying) or energy theft, which involves physical security risks and multiple law violations.
Energy access around the world
According to a recent IEA Report on Energy Access, 1.1 billion people around the world lacked electricity access in 2016. Disheartening as this may be, things have actually been improving, considering that in 2000 the number was 1.7 billion. [1]
Moreover, the IEA foresees that the number will keep decreasing, so that by 2030 the number of people without electricity access will fall to 674 million, mainly on account of efforts in India towards universal electricity access.
Although energy access issues can be observed in most of the world, the worst situation is in Africa, followed by Southern Asia and South America. The sub-Saharan regions are the most affected, with an average of merely 43% energy access (some countries in Central Africa having an energy access rate of only 25%).[1]
The causes of this situation are multiple and diverse, but they all come down to the low income levels that don’t attract investors (in conjunction with the large distance between the grids and the communities without energy access). On top of this, corruption and violent conflicts are also significant reasons that discourage investments in the region.
Moreover, what could have been a major business opportunity in such a situation, is actually an even greater challenge: rapid population growth.
Poorly targeted or poorly implemented policies and also a lack of local know-how for complex projects (which translates into more costs for investors) complete the desolated picture of energy access in most of the regions of Africa.
An interesting fact mentioned by the recent IEA Report is that almost all those that gained electricity access in the past 16 years (about 600 mil people) are currently using electricity generated in fossil fuel-based generation units. This is not encouraging in terms of clean energy use. For this reason too, investment in off-grid/mini-grid systems have accelerated in the past years and the increasing trend is expected to be kept, reaching no less than 60% of new access by 2030. [1]
Probably the most significant political and diplomatic measure taken for energy access at global level happened in 2015, when 193 countries adopted a common sustainable development goal to ensure access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services for everyone by 2030 – as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals project.
The same IEA report indicates that the goal of bringing electricity to all by 2030, as committed to back in 2015, is indeed achievable, provided that the level of annual investment will double from the current level of about $52 billion.
Needless to say, universal energy access is vital and will bring outstanding improvements for those in need, will boost their countries’ economies (tourism and manufacturing, just to name a couple of sectors), while significantly decreasing health issues related to household air pollution and insufficient warming.
Energy access in Europe and Romania
In Europe, things are a bit different, because electricity grid access is not such a major issue as in other regions of the world, and can easily be categorized as a marginal problem. Still, a lot of European countries deal with affordability problems – which is addressed in the second part of this series.
The EU does not have a significant problem of physical access to the electricity grid and this is the reason why, for instance, the World Bank or Index Mundi, have in their statistics a 100% electricity access rate.
But given that the number of EU households yet to be connected to grid is low, the efforts done to bridge the gap of the last percent point are significant. All in all, the EU rate of electricity access is very high, mostly due to a relatively developed economy in the region – a process accelerated for the East European countries especially after joining the EU.
Despite that, there is still a part of the population which has no access to the grid. In Romania, for example, studies show that tens of thousand (recent studies talk about around 30,000, while the 2016 Romanian Energy Strategy indicates an even higher number) households are still not connected to the electricity network, out of a total of 7.18 million points of delivery.
Probably the first real information about energy access in Romania dates since 2006 (almost 68.000 households were out of the grid, based on the official documents at that time), when a Government decision set a somewhat simple action plan: where possible, the localities will be connected to the electricity grid, while for remote settlements off-grid solutions will be taken into consideration.
A few years later, in 2012, a Governmental decision on tackling the energy access issue, in Romania, was submitted for public debate (back then, the central authorities mentioned an increased number, of almost 99.000 points of deliver, not connected to the grid). Although not mentioned the source of this increase, it would have been important to understand the different figure (I presume a different counting methodology is the source of the mismatch – judging by number of localities and not by the number of actual points of delivery, for instance). Unfortunately, the decision was never approved. [2]
Grid loss is an issue affecting all electric grid systems all over the world, be it transportation, distribution or user grid. The challenge is to monitor, predict and manage the power losses arising from the normal grid operation.
Grid losses take place throughout the electric system and must be addressed through a comprehensive set of actions, agreed between the grid operators, regulators and consumers.
While many grid losses have technical root causes and may be solved through a comprehensive and sensitive investment policy, significant scale results may be seen in the loss reduction by addressing more efficiently fraudulent consumption (i.e. energy thefts) by some grid clients. Below is described in more detail this additional, non-technical cause, along with the most common technical causes of grid losses.
Technically, grid loss is caused first by overheating of power transformers and power lines on currents passing through, and second by excessive grid reactive power. Several additional causes to technical grid losses can be identified, yet those mentioned above are amongst the most active in the Romanian grids.
Grid loss from overheating of power transformers and grid lines is a matter of investment management and agreement between the grid operators and the regulator. It is in process of being addressed through a combination of actions by the stakeholders.
Reducing such grid losses require accurate, up-to-date grid diagnosis and grid investment, at a pace consistent with the ability of the grid to assimilate such investment, and of the consumers to ultimately pay for it.
The Romanian energy regulator ANRE has enacted limits to the level of investment that are to be recognized throughout a regulatory cycle. Decision-makers agree that security of supply and optimum operation standards (SAIFI, SAIDI) need a consistent approach. Nevertheless, a long road lies ahead up to thorough cutting through all details of the process.
Management of excessive reactive power is essential to contain grid losses. The existence of excessive reactive power is generically called “overcompensation of the Romanian Energy Market Monitor system.” It consists in the generation of a reactive flow of electrons, whose oscillation plane adversely interferes with the mainstream currents, such as their circulation in the system affects the grid’s total active power.
Reactive power is often useful for an electrical circuit to have, since it generates positive, regulating effects for many industrial power applications. While real or active power is the energy supplied to run a motor, heat a home, or illuminate an electric light bulb, reactive power provides the important function of regulating the voltage, thereby helping to move power effectively through the utility grid and transmission lines to where it is required by the load. Therefore, effective monitoring and management of reactive power can importantly reduce grid loss.
Meanwhile, however, excessive reactive power may lead to increased drops of power along the transmission or distribution lines, cause excess heating and grid losses, and excessive variation of voltage to the end consumer, with negative effects over receptors. Therefore it is always useful to reduce the free circulation of excessive reactive power in order to improve system efficiency.
One way to avoid reactive power overcharges is to install power factor correction capacitors. Normally, residential customers are charged only for the active power consumed, because nearly all residential and single-phase power factor values are essentially the same, due to power factor correction capacitors built into most domestic appliances by the manufacturer.
Industrial customers, on the other hand, which use 3-phase supplies have widely different power factors, and for this reason, the grid operators may have to take them into account. The industrial customers would generate costs to the grid operators if their power factor drops below a prescribed value. It costs the grid operators more to supply industrial customers since larger conductors, larger transformers, larger switchgear, etc. are required to handle the larger active and reactive currents.
Investment management is, again, key to the investment decision and recognition in tariffs. The reactive energy management solutions lie at the edge of technology innovation and are fully worth of ANRE’s special attention.
An additional cause for grid loss in Romania is the high amount of energy fraudulently consumed by some users. This is a non-technical cause that involves residential and business clients of the grid, being a widespread reality in the entire country. Fraudulent consumption takes place through various methods, from meter bypassing to tempering, to not using any meter at all.
Several legal means, combined with regulatory requirements, are used to address this phenomenon, but results of significant scale are slow to appear. The root causes lie in the fact that this is a relatively new type of crime, and the legal criminal and procedural regime simply has not yet developed the most efficient ways to address it in a due process. Thus, there are no special rules facilitating the discovery of fraudulent consumption, such as efficient access to private properties to monitor the meter sites, or possibility of disconnection based on a strong fraudulent indication (such as, the consumer being caught in the action of illegal connection or meter tampering).
The criminal pursuit of such crimes is also difficult and burdensome, since it is in many instances subject to rules governing the pursuit of theft of any other commodity, with very little differentiation to facilitate the work of the magistrates. However, several proposals of improvement have been brought forward, including some institutional roadmaps for legislation improvement, with the expectation that the regulatory and legal framework will align and be more effective against energy theft.
Grid losses are a systemic set of issues and require a systemic set of solutions. As briefly described above, an appropriate amount of investment by the grid operators is needed in order to optimize the grid loss and keep it under control, coupled with an appropriate policy on tariff formulation, and operational standard requirements by ANRE. However, there is a delicate balance to be achieved between the amount of investment required and the ability of the grid and final consumers to absorb it. The complexity thereof cannot be underestimated anywhere in the world.
Any approach that tends to address the grid partially is likely to fail on the medium- to long-run. Grid losses are a matter of grid stability and therefore a matter of national priority. Every country in the world would want to include this matter amongst its critical governance topics and address it through its policies and stakeholders’ actions. Such actions should be directed towards managing grid losses as part of an articulated policy on energy efficiency, including the possibility for the operators to integrate smart metering, smart grid solutions, digitalization and big data analytics. This should be pursued accross the regulatory cycles. In this respect, energy efficiency is energy security.
Transportul de persoane și de bunuri este un pilon al economiei și un indicator al prosperităţii. România se situează pe ultimul loc în UE ceea ce privește numărul de autoturisme per capita: 270/1000 locuitori, conform ultimelor date ale Agenţiei Europene a Producătorilor de Autovehicule (ACEA) pentru 2015. Flota de autovehicule a ţării noastre este în medie cu 4,6 ani mai veche decât cea europeană, a cărei vârstă medie este de 10,7 ani.
Pentru reducerea emisiilor din sectorul transport sunt reglementate deopotrivă autovehiculele, infrastructura și carburanţii. Lucrarea de faţă se ocupă de cel din urmă element. Este important, atunci când evaluăm potenţialul unor politici publice de a-și atinge obiectivele, să considerăm întregul ciclu de viaţă al carburanţilor. La fel de importantă este aplicarea principiului neutralităţii tehnologice, prescripţiile tehnologice fiind de natură a restrânge opţiunile industriei de a integra noi soluţii sau a le elimina pe cele ineficiente.
Așa cum se menţionează în Strategia Uniunii Europene pentru o mobilitate cu emisii scăzute [COM(2016) 501], utilizarea biocombustibililor obţinuţi din culturi alimentare este contraproductivă pentru scăderea gazelor cu efect de seră (GES), ţinând cont de emisiile indirecte cauzate de schimbarea utilizării terenurilor agricole. „Pachetul de Iarnă”, propus de Comisia Europeană la finele anului 2016, prevede eliminarea sprijinului pentru aceștia și retragerea lor treptată după 2020. În lipsa ajustării cadrului de reglementare la nivel naţional (HG 935/2011 și HG 928/2012), care să reflecte aceste noi tendinţe de politici, România continuă creșterea ţintelor volumetrice pentru biocombustibili, riscând să genereze dezavantaje competitive și costuri adiţionale ce se vor regăsi în preţul plătit de consumatori, dar mai ales menţinerea unor măsuri care nu duc la reducerea efectivă a emisiilor de GES.
Most of the world relies on electricity systems build around 50 years ago. These are inefficient and cannot offer an appropriate response to today´s urgent global challenges. The estimated investment requirements in energy infrastructure are $13 trillion for the next 20 years. This poses an eminent need and opportunity to shift towards a low carbon, efficient and clean energy system. Smart grids will be a strong enabler of this transition.
What is a smart grid?
A smart grid is an intelligent, digitized energy network delivering electricity in an optimal way from source to consumption. This is achieved by integrating information, telecommunication and power technologies with the existing electricity system. The benefits of a smart grid include:
improved efficiency and reliability of electricity supply;
integration of more renewable energy into existing networks;
support for the development of electric vehicles at scale;
new solutions for customers to optimize their electricity consumption;
reduction of carbon emissions.
Governments are increasingly recognizing the value of smart grids. For example, China aims at building a strong smart grid by 2020, the U.S. has dedicated $4.5bn of its fiscal stimulus package specifically for the purpose of funding smart grid development. Similar compelling initiatives are currently ongoing in Europe, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Are smart grids insured to prevail?
A smart grid means adding sensors and software to an existing grid that will provide utilities and individuals with new information which will help them react to changes quickly.
For example, if a tree falls on a power line, an entire neighborhood loses power, and current grid utility employees need to manually reroute power, which takes time. With a smart grid, sensors and software would detect and promptly reroute the power around the problem, limiting the issue to fewer homes.
But there´s more. The price of electricity changes throughout the day, but this cannot be seen with current meters installed in households. Electricity may be expensive during peak hours and cheap late at night. With new smart meters, a washing machine, for example, could be set up to run at times when power is cheap. This gives more control over energy bills and helps avoid blackouts at peak hours.
The smart grid also means new ways of using renewable energy. Power generation can now be distributed across multiple sources, so the system is more stable and efficient. It´s this ability to communicate and manage electricity that makes the grid smarter and helps us avoid burning more fossil fuels in the future.
With the participation of informed consumers, the smart grid will replace the ageing infrastructure of today´s grid and utilities will be better able to communicate with clients in order to electricity demands.
Grid security challenges
Expanding smart grids at scale will be challenging, but successful pilot projects can set the direction. From debates and research in some of the 90 pilot projects underway worldwide, a series of lessons came up that can improve the effectiveness of existing and planned pilot programs and accelerate their transition to full scale roll-out.
But before moving forward, it is important to consider security threats, vulnerabilities and solutions for the smart grid.
The internet has brought the possibility of constant communication through computers, but it can also cause a lot of problems regarding privacy and financial security. Smart grids will depend upon the developing and deploying of considerable computer and communication frameworks that support significantly increased situational awareness and allow finer-grained command and control.
The core system is the Smart Grid communications network. It connects the various subsystems and enables bidirectional communication between them. Offering communication capacities to physical subsystems, they become exposed to attacks. The number of points from which someone could gain access to the Smart Grid network system increases.
Security in a large system has three aspects: integrity, availability and confidentiality.
Integrity refers to the reliability of data and resources. Its deficiency can lead to false data injection into the system.
Availability refers to the fact that the system must be accessible and available for monitoring and control at any time. Lack of availability can lead to Denial of Service attacks (DoS), and the deprivation of certain measurements can destabilize the system.
Confidentiality refers to the ability to keep information secure and to prevent unauthorized users.
Accordingly, there are different kinds of security issues. With respect to smart grid integrity: with the commissioning of Smart Grid systems, consumers will have access to intelligent measuring devices (smart meters) installed in their homes. The potential threat to which the power system operators are subject is the receipt of values lower than actual consumption. Changing measurement data provided to consumers, or even at the level of transmission or distribution can lead to errors in estimating the status and control structure of the energy system.
With respect to smart grid availability, the main target of attacks aimed at energy system availability is the consumer. A cyber-attack can occur in the software that runs the smart meter to a consumer´s home or business, resulting in a power outage. A particular type of cyber-attack aimed at smart grid availability is Denial of Service (DoS).
As far as smart grid privacy is concerned, in a modern energy system, privacy issues are related to security concerns of consumer data. Energy operators collect and store information about users, such as name, address and data on consumption.
Solutions
Some of the proposed security solutions for the smart grid are the following:
Vulnerability assessments must be performed at least annually to make sure that the elements that interface with the perimeter are secure.
Devices should support Virtual Private Network (VPN) architectures for secure communication.
From the huge amount of transferred data, utilities should only collect the data needed to achieve their goals.
One thing is for sure, the traditional power systems are moving towards a new era of digitally enabled smart grids that will upgrade communications, efficiency, improve reliability and reduce the cost of electricity services.
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