Resilience assessment in electricity critical infrastructure from the point of view of converged security

Abstract

In terms of service provision, the electricity sector is the most important critical infrastructure sector, on the supply of which the vast majority of society and its basic vital functions depend. Extensive disruption of these supplies would have negative effects not only on basic human needs, but also on the economy and security of the state. For this reason, it is necessary to ensure permanent and comprehensive monitoring of the infrastructure elements resilience level, especially against threats with a multispectral impact on several areas of security. For this reason, the authors of the article developed the Converged Resilience Assessment (CRA) method, which enables advanced assessment of the electricity critical infrastructure elements resilience from the converged security point of view. Converged security in this case combines (converges) physical, cyber and operational security into a complementary unit. This reflects the integral determinants of resilience across related areas of security/safety. The CRA method focuses mainly on information and situation management, which integrates and correlates information (signals) from systems and sensors in order to obtain an overview of the situation and the subsequent effective management of its solution. The practical use of the proposed method is demonstrated on a selected element of the Czech Republic transmission system. The CRA method is currently embodied in a functional sample that has been piloted on several TSO elements. Further development of this method is seen mainly in fulfilling the logic of network infrastructure and reflection between elementary and intersectoral links in the context of synergistic and cascading effects in a broader context.