IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijcist/v4y2008i1-2p32-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The security of power systems and the role of information and communication technologies: lessons from the recent blackouts

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Stefanini
  • Marcelo Masera

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of information and communication technologies upon the security of networked infrastructures, making specific reference to the situation of the electric power sector. It discusses the lessons learnt from the recent blackouts, and concludes with the identification of the main technological security challenges faced in this field. In recent years, both Europe and the USA have experienced a significant number of huge blackouts, whose frequency and impact looks to be progressively growing. This paper shows that these events had common roots in the fact that current risk assessment methodologies and current system controls no longer appear to be adequate. Beyond the growing complexity of the electrical system as a whole, two main reasons can be listed: (1) system analysis procedures based on these methodologies did not identify security threats emerging from failures of critical physical components; and (2) online controls were not able to avoid system collapse.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Stefanini & Marcelo Masera, 2008. "The security of power systems and the role of information and communication technologies: lessons from the recent blackouts," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1/2), pages 32-45.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijcist:v:4:y:2008:i:1/2:p:32-45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=16090
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pearson, Ivan L.G., 2011. "Smart grid cyber security for Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5211-5218, September.
    2. Peter Zeniewski & Carlo Brancucci Martínez-Anido & Ivan L.G. Pearson, 2013. "Framing new threats: the internal security of gas and electricity networks in the European Union," Chapters, in: Hugh Dyer & Maria Julia Trombetta (ed.), International Handbook of Energy Security, chapter 3, pages 40-69, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijcist:v:4:y:2008:i:1/2:p:32-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=58 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.