Since last October 2021, Enerfín has been part of the ELECTRON Project, which aims at providing and demonstrating a new-generation EPES (Energy Companies) platform, capable of empowering the resilience of energy systems against cyber, privacy, and data attacks through several main pillars: risk assessment and certification, anomaly detection and prevention, failure mitigation and energy restoration, addressing internal threats and gaps, while fostering and design a training and certification energy personnel framework.

In the era of hyper-connected digital economies, decentralized Blockchain model, the 5th Generation (5G) networks are shifting from the traditional hardware-based networks to a new concept of software based wireless networks, and the increasing number of devices and equipment with an Internet connection (which It has come to be called IoT: “the Internet of Things”), they will represent a great advance, as well as a great challenge, to convert these digital tools into reliable and trustworthy ones.

It is for this reason that the ELECTRON Project has emerged: rEsilient and seLf-headed ElecCTRical pOwer Nanogrid (ELECTRON). 

It is a cybersecurity project that involves a group of thirty-three companies linked to the electricity generation and distribution systems of twelve different European countries. The ELECTRON Project is coordinated by the University of Macedonia, for the development and implementation of different technologies and measures, under the protection and financing of the European Union.

Although in the past prevention was more focused on the protection of physical environments, due to the rapid evolution of connectivity, it is necessary to grow at the same time in terms of cybersecurity, strengthening its security and resilience.

Since renewable plants are becoming one of the main sources of generation of the European electricity system, the ELECTRON Project tries to reinforce and protect them, thus avoiding any critical impact against cyberattacks, privacy violation and data leaking, for the EU countries.

Solid prevention and strategic mitigation are necessary to protect the electricity transmission and distribution network, avoiding cascading effects applying the high-visibility threat, intrusion and anomaly detection system, which would affect the general population and the economy due to the lack of energy during cyberattacks or failures caused in the whole network.

Enerfín has a relevant role in - Use Case Three - whose main objective is to improve cybersecurity through the identification and assessment of risks in windfarms, the approach of cybersecure architectures and cyber-resilient communications.

Enerfín, through this project, demonstrates its commitment to cybersecurity in electricity generation plants, in order to strengthen the standardisation and certification of the best-practices in the operation of renewable plants and making one of its wind farms (Cofrentes Wind Farm) available to the project effective validation and demonstration results, and the development and establishment of cybersecurity directives from ELECTRON.