New and unique space at TU Delft helps the whole of the Netherlands against catastrophic power failures
The world is becoming more and more digital and we do everything online; from shopping to banking to communicating. Communication systems are also being digitized at more important companies, and in the fight against climate change we are driving electric cars that we charge instead of refueling. Because all these developments are making our electricity grid increasingly crowded, there are also all kinds of new cyber threats and there are also new cyber threats and there are also new cyber threats and there are also new cyber threats and there is also a new cyber threat. Hackers can cause damage, which can have terrible consequences for our society. That is why the new space at TU Delft, the Control Room of the Future, is a very important one.
In this ‘CRoF’ -a room with many screens and ‘supercomputers’- a kind of digital twin brother of the real Dutch electricity network has been recreated. It looks the same here as in the national control centers, where system operators receive all the live information from the power grid. But things can still go wrong at this place in Delft. “We can receive here in a safe environment with cyber attacks,” says Alex Stefanov, scientific initiator and brain behind this control room.
Together with his colleagues from TU Delft and industry partners, he is working on ways to detect and prevent cyber attacks. Here he and one of his PhDd students put themselves in the shoes of malicious hackers and try new attacks that sabotage the system or put a strain on the system. By testing all kinds of scenarios and
learn from it, our power system will eventually become less susceptible to attack.
Climate change
This special simulation was created at a crucial time, Stefanov explains: ”The energy transition is an important development to achieve our climate goals. Digitization plays a major role in the transition to sustainable energy as a result of the enormous turbines of new energy sources such as wind turbines and solar panels that are added and that have to become good. So in a short period of time, a lot of things are added to the electricity grid. A lot of research is needed to ensure that all of this runs smoothly and safely.”
Normally the national chambers are strong and there is little room for this kind of research and experimentation. That changed with this Delft control room, which is why the ‘CRoF’ is a unique testing ground. All important partners from the industry (such as suppliers such as Siemens and network operators such as TenneT) have been brought together here by Stefanov to make use of this. System administrators and cybersecurity experts can also be trained and learn how to respond to attacks.
Natural and hostile
Stefanov and his colleague demonstrate on the screens what such a cyber attack looks like. “You have natural enemies,” he explains. ”The big difference is that the chance that things will go wrong in nature in two places is very small. Maybe with very violent storms, but we can start well with this. However, with cyber attacks, the human enemies, many more places can be hit at once and we are not prepared for that. If three or more transmission lines are disconnected, the other lines become overcrowded with power.
They then fail more quickly, leading to a blackout, a
huge power outage.”
On the computers you see more red lines during such an event and you hear an alarming sound. But in real life, these attacks will show a much more violent picture. “A blackout has a devastating impact on a society,” Stefanov says. “That outage can last for days or even weeks, so there is no electricity all that time. Backup power of invested activities will run out after a few hours, long losses will fall out and some loss of lives will mean. And imagine the chaos on the streets, alarms, banks, shops and…
off and break-ins are possible everywhere at night. Public transport, transport systems such as for clean water and all kinds of other critical infrastructures can no longer be safely arranged.”
A major humanitarian and economic disaster. You would say that the government
takes this very seriously, but according to Stefanov this still happens too little.
“There is still too little money being made available for this. There are therefore two options: we will lobby vigorously to make people aware of the dangers, and in the meantime something must go wrong in the real world. I’m afraid it will only be on their radar.” That something is wrong, according to Stefanov, is a daily and very chosen threat. “It is very likely that such a cyber attack will hit us at some point. Sometimes it is already happening. There have been attacks in several countries in Europe in the past,
who, for example, shut down a public transport water system for a day.”
War between Russia and Ukraine
According to Stefanov, the danger is also due to the war in Ukraine. ”All over Europe, all electricity grids are connected, so if something fails in Poland, it can also be felt in Spain in the Netherlands within milliseconds. Ukraine has also been connected to the European network for several months. With war raging and pro-Russian hacker groups trying to collapse Ukraine’s power grid, it could set off a chain reaction of power cuts across all countries on that grid. The whole of Europe is therefore exposed to a blackout. That’s why it’s really important now to
network more securely.”
Stefanov indicates that he is sometimes concerned about the situation. “But luckily we now have the opportunity to change that. With the CRoF we can create more awareness among our makers and show what we can do about this. That’s why I’m often both concerned and excited because I have hopes that we’re going to reach our initial goal: an electrical grid that’s intelligent, resilient and safe.”