Critical infrastructures at risk: Securing the European electric power system
Following a recommendation from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the starting point of IRGC’s work on critical infrastructures was a study focused on the systemic risks induced by the increasing ubiquity of digitalisation within critical infrastructures. The study took the electricity grid, rail transportation network and Information and Communication Technology system (ICT) as reference infrastructures and Switzerland and neighbouring countries as its reference region.
Work included desk research, interviews with knowledge experts from within the three industries, case studies of several infrastructure failures, and an international multi-stakeholder challenge meeting at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue, Rüschlikon, in February 2004.
Further work focused more specifically on the risks (defined as the potential loss of continuous power supply and the secondary consequences of such a loss) associated with the European electric power system, on the risks associated with the use of ICT to monitor and control its performance, and on the risks associated with the interdependencies between the two systems. The objectives of the study were:
to examine the European electric power system, from both the technical and socio-economic perspectives, as a critical infrastructure linked to and interdependent with other vital systems e.g. ICT; to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities within this “mega-infrastructure”; to identify potential recommendations for technical and non-technical solutions to certain threats and vulnerabilities which may cause end-user disruptions; to propose improvements to risk governance strategies; and to suggest areas requiring further research.
The project team (from ETH Zurich, the EC’s Joint Research Centre and the Technical University of Delft) continued its work through to their publication of the book, ’Critical Infrastructures at Risk: Securing the European Electric Power System’, was published by Springer in January 2006. Click here for further information about this book.