News round-up, June 15, 2023
This week's event:
…”Historic Moment in Australia’s Energy Transition as Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System is Commissioned
The Hazelwood BESS is an impressive feat of engineering and collaboration. Jointly funded and developed by ENGIE and Eku Energy, this facility is Australia's largest privately funded utility-scale battery, boasting a massive 150 MW/150 MWh capacity. Moreover, this project represents a significant step forward in the country's energy transition, thanks in part to the —-State Of The Art—-technology supplied by Fluence.
GLOBE NEWSWIRE / Editing by Germán & Co, June 14, 2023The other side of the coin…
…”The Triton malware... Do you know what it is?
The issue has attracted significant attention from cybersecurity experts, especially in the energy sector. The malware under scrutiny has been labelled as the "world's most lethal" due to its ability to remotely deactivate safety mechanisms in industrial facilities, which could result in catastrophic consequences.
Reuters, nowMost Read…
‘As geopolitically important as oil’: Lithium mining could transform India – but is trouble looming?
As countries wean themselves off fossil fuels and decarbonise their economies, a global race to extract the precious metal is on the horizon
THE TELEGRAPH By Samaan Lateef IN NEW DELHI15 June 2023 …”Historic Moment in Australia’s Energy Transition as Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System is Commissioned
The Hazelwood BESS is an impressive feat of engineering and collaboration. Jointly funded and developed by ENGIE and Eku Energy, this facility is Australia's largest privately funded utility-scale battery, boasting a massive 150 MW/150 MWh capacity. Moreover, this project represents a significant step forward in the country's energy transition, thanks in part to the —-State Of The Art—-technology supplied by Fluence.
GLOBE NEWSWIRE / Editing by Germán & Co, June 14, 2023Energy bills to rise £200 a year ‘to pay for wasted wind power’
Poor electricity grid infrastructure means energy created by turbines in Scotland can’t reach homes in England on very windy days
The Telegraph by Emma Gatten, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR15 June 2023The rise of North Korea’s most dangerous woman
Tipped to be the future leader, Kim Jong-un’s sister Yo-jong reportedly ordered the executions of officials for ‘getting on her nerves’
The Telegraph By Sung-Yoon Lee, 8 June 2023 Cyberattacks on renewables:
Europe power sector's dread in chaos of war…
Reuters by Nora Buli, Nina Chestney and Christoph Steitz, June 15, 2023, now
The AES Corporation President Andrés Gluski, Dominican Republic Minister of Industry and Commerce Victor Bisonó, and Rolando González-Bunster, CEO of InterEnergy Group, spoke at the Latin American Cities Conferences panel on "Facilitating Sustainable Investment in Strategic Sectors" on April 12 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.How can strategic investment achieve both economic growth and social progress?… What is the role of renewable energy and battery storage in achieving the goals of the low-carbon economy?…
Image: Germán & CoCooperate with objective and ethical thinking…
Image credit: Lithium is found all over the world in both brine and hard rock deposits CREDIT: Surya Nair/iStockphoto / Editing by Germán & Co‘As geopolitically important as oil’: Lithium mining could transform India – but is trouble looming?
As countries wean themselves off fossil fuels and decarbonise their economies, a global race to extract the precious metal is on the horizon
THE TELEGRAPH By Samaan Lateef IN NEW DELHI15 June 2023 In early February, the Indian government made a discovery deep beneath the foothills of the Himalayas which holds the potential to transform the nation.
It was not a discovery of gold, diamonds or oil – but a highly reactive precious metal that is, quite literally, electrifying the world: lithium.
As countries look to wean themselves off fossil fuels and decarbonise their economies, a global race has emerged to mine the metal, which is a vital component for batteries – the sort used in electric vehicles and mobile – and extremely effective at storing energy.
This race is currently being won by the likes of Australia and Chile, but India’s new-found supply of lithium, which amounts to 5.9 million metric tons, the sixth largest reserve in the world, is likely to make the nation a serious contender.
The government will be eager to exploit its bounty as soon as possible – not only because it offers the opportunity to create jobs and attract investment, helping turbocharge the economy, but because lithium can pave the way to a greener India.
“It is geopolitically important as oil now,” says Chris Berry, a Washington-based analyst on energy metals supply chains.
India is currently the world’s third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide behind China and the US, and could well overtake these nations as its population and economy continues to grow.
To avoid inheriting the unwanted title of the world’s leading polluter, the Indian government has declared its intentions to seek self-reliance in energy. “From solar energy to Mission Hydrogen to adoption to EVs [electric vehicles], we need to take these initiatives to the next level for energy independence,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last year.
Already, many of the country’s public institutions are running – or partially running – on solar energy. And in India’s most developed cities, more and more people are embracing electric vehicles, while public transport is transitioning away from fossil fuels.
The discovery of high-grade lithium in the north Indian village of Salal, up in the mountains of Jammu and Kashmir, has therefore come as a shot in the arm for the nation’s green dreams.
If harnessed properly, this reserve could reduce India’s greenhouse gas emissions by facilitating the electrification of the transport sector, which currently accounts for eight per cent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The number of electric vehicles being sold in the country is already on the rise. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, just under 50,000 EVs were sold. This number rose significantly to 237,811 the following year, and 442,901 until December 2022.
More and more Indians are embracing electric vehicles CREDIT: ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/REUTERS
To promote the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country, India has implemented a scheme known as ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles’ (FAME), which, if all goes to plan, will help turn the nation into the number one global exporter of EVs.
Under the programme, electric vehicles will make up 30 per cent of all private cars, 70 per cent of commercial vehicles, 40 per cent of buses and 80 per cent of two- and three-wheeler sales by 2030.
By providing a competitive advantage in the manufacturing of batteries and EVs, India’s lithium could turn the bold aspirations of FAME into reality.
The domestic availability of lithium could also facilitate the scaling up of energy storage systems to enable more efficient and reliable integration of renewable power into India’s energy grid.
“If managed efficiently and sustainably, the domestic availability of lithium can play a significant role in India’s pursuit of energy self-reliance and the transition towards a greener and more sustainable future,” says Pankaj Srivastava, Professor of geology at the University of Jammu.
He added that the lithium reserve could reduce India’s dependence on imports – last year, India spent £1.6 billion on buying lithium from abroad – and “boost its economy”.
Land slips, earthquakes and water scarcity
The government plans to auction off the lithium reserve in December. Both Indian private companies and foreign entities with a local subsidiary will be able to stake a claim, an official from India’s Ministry of Mines said.
But there are likely to be many challenges ahead. Experts believe India may need technology transfers and tie-ups with the global firms engaged in lithium metal extraction to facilitate the mining of the deposit.
“Lithium is found all over the world in both brine and hard rock deposits. The challenge is building the mine and producing large amounts of what we call battery grade or high purity lithium because of the geological and geochemical complexity of the lithium deposit,” says Mr Berry.
“Whoever decides to build a mine here would need significant capital as well as deep technical and engineering talent. This is not to say the mine can’t or shouldn’t be built but to say that it could take years.”
There is also the issue of local opposition. Salal village is part of the Reasi district – a hilly region prone to earthquakes and land sliding.
Many locals told the Telegraph they do not want the reserve to be mined, fearing it will trigger earthquakes and habitat disruption and lead to drinking water scarcity in the area, given the huge amounts of water needed to extract lithium.
“We are facing an acute shortage of drinking water and if lithium mining starts here, there won’t be enough water left for us,” says Nitin Mukesh, 37, a Salal resident.
Many of the wells have already dried up from other mining projects in the area, Mukesh adds.
Authorities will have to displace around 350 families of Salal village to build the mine. This has fuelled protests, with locals demanding jobs and compensation three times the cost of their properties.
In August 2022, Nature Conservancy claimed that the proven technologies of lithium extraction through surface mining or brine evaporation require hundreds of acres of land for extraction and can lead to the complete removal of native vegetation from an affected area.
With this in mind, the people of Salal are fearful of what will happen to the natural resources and beauty of their home land.
Vaibhav Rukwal, a 25-year-old local lawyer, is surprised that the surveyors who reviewed the area ignored the presence of a significant river beneath the foothills where the lithium reserves have been found.
“We fear the lithium mountain will sink due to the mining. And if the mountain sinks by just two inches, it could alter the course of the Chenab river, resulting in devastating flooding of the Raesi town,” says Rukwal.
Many families are protesting against the displacement as they say it would be difficult for them to leave behind ancestral properties without any significant benefit in return, he said.
“What purpose does this lithium serve when our people are forcibly uprooted?” asks Rukwal.
Even as officials claim the lithium mining would be economically viable because of its quality and quantity amid growing demand for the mineral, critics say it is a long road ahead.
“Getting Lithium out of the ground in an economic way is difficult. There is a big difference between resources in the ground, economic reserves, and then building a mine that can make lithium chemicals for the EVs. That timeline is decades long,” says Simon Moores, a London-based businessman specializing in the lithium ion battery and electric vehicle industry.
India needs to first drill the lithium deposits to understand the geology and how to commercialise it, he adds. “A wealth of lithium in the ground is great for politics but useless for the industry.”
Prof Srivastava argues that the discovery of lithium “is in its preliminary stage”. He adds: “It will be interesting to see how this evolves and contributes to India’s renewable energy goals.”
Seaboard: pioneers in power generation in the country…
…“More than 32 years ago, back in January 1990, Seaboard began operations as the first independent power producer (IPP) in the Dominican Republic. They became pioneers in the electricity market by way of the commercial operations of Estrella del Norte, a 40MW floating power generation plant and the first of three built for Seaboard by Wärtsilä.
Fluence with their Gridstack product, this world-renowned energy solutions provider is helping to ensure that energy in Victoria remains secure and reliable for years to come. / Image credit: Fluence/ Yahoo / Editing by Germán & Co…”Historic Moment in Australia’s Energy Transition as Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System is Commissioned
The Hazelwood BESS is an impressive feat of engineering and collaboration. Jointly funded and developed by ENGIE and Eku Energy, this facility is Australia's largest privately funded utility-scale battery, boasting a massive 150 MW/150 MWh capacity. Moreover, this project represents a significant step forward in the country's energy transition, thanks in part to the —-State Of The Art—-technology supplied by Fluence.
GLOBE NEWSWIRE / Editing by Germán & Co, June 14, 2023MELBOURNE, Australia, June 13, 2023 ( -- ENGIE and project partners Eku Energy and Fluence have delivered another milestone at the site of the former Hazelwood Power Station in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, with the commissioning of the Hazelwood Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) today. Marking a new era in Australia’s energy transition, Hazelwood is the first retired coal-fired power station to host a battery storage system in Australia and represents a key moment in repurposing former thermal assets for renewable energy technologies.
The Hazelwood BESS was officially opened on 14 June 2023 by The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Victorian Minister for Energy & Resources, together with Rik De Buyserie, CEO, ENGIE Australia & New Zealand, Daniel Burrows, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asia Pacific, Eku Energy, and Achal Sondhi, Vice President for Market Growth, APAC & General Manager for Australia, Fluence.
Jointly funded and developed by ENGIE and Eku Energy, the 150 MW/150 MWh Hazelwood BESS is Australia’s largest privately funded utility-scale battery. Fluence supplies, operates, and maintains the facility for the partnership and it is the first project in Australia to use Fluence’s Gridstack product to provide secure and reliable energy in Victoria and support the energy transition.
The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy & Resources, Government of Victoria said:
… “Victoria is leading the nation in delivering battery and energy storage projects, with our ambitious energy storage targets ensuring that Victoria continues to attract industry investment and collaboration opportunities like this. The Latrobe Valley has been the home of Victoria’s energy generation for decades and new investment in technologies like energy storage will help solidify its role in our renewable energy future.”
Rik De Buyserie, CEO, ENGIE ANZ said:
…“ENGIE’s delivery of the Hazelwood battery is part of our commitment to building long-term, reliable assets that play a key role in the future of Australia’s energy transition. With its access to transmission and available space at site, Hazelwood is the perfect location for an asset that can grow in depth and duration, increasing the hosting capacity for renewables.”
Daniel Burrows, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asia Pacific, Eku Energy said:
… “The Hazelwood battery is an example of how strong partnerships can support the deployment of battery storage systems at strategic grid locations as Australia’s existing generation fleet transitions towards higher penetrations of renewable energy resources. Storage solutions remain key to the pace at which we can transition to renewable energy and today’s event marks another proud milestone in Eku Energy’s global energy storage portfolio, as we celebrate the commissioning of 150 MW of safe, secure and reliable battery capacity to accelerate the energy transition.”
Achal Sondhi, Vice President for Market Growth, APAC & General Manager for Australia at Fluence said:
…. “As the first project in Australia to deploy Fluence Gridstack, an energy storage product which is designed for the most demanding market applications, the Hazelwood battery is a major milestone for us. By partnering with ENGIE and Eku Energy, we are bringing Fluence’s proven advanced technology combined with over 15 years of global energy storage experience to deliver industry-leading reliability, scalability, and safety to Australia. Fluence Mosaic™ bidding software allows the Hazelwood battery to react quickly and efficiently to grid needs and maximise the revenue while allowing integration of more clean energy. Our rapidly growing Fluence team in Australia is committed to the country’s energy transition.”
The Hazelwood battery has the capacity to store the equivalent of an hour of energy generated from the rooftop solar systems of 30,000 homes. It will play a critical role in increasing renewable energy capacity in Victoria while delivering essential system services to the grid. The Hazelwood Power Station was built in the 1960s and closed in 2017 after 50 years of service, in line with ENGIE’s global strategy to be Net Zero carbon by 2045.
The findings of this significant project indicate that adopting the —State Of The Art— technologies, such as the battery energy storage system (BESS) provided by Fluence, is imperative for achieving a swift and effective shift towards renewable energy sources.
Image credit by Germán & CoEnergy bills to rise £200 a year ‘to pay for wasted wind power’
Poor electricity grid infrastructure means energy created by turbines in Scotland can’t reach homes in England on very windy days
The Telegraph by Emma Gatten, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR15 June 2023Energy bills will rise £200 a year within a decade to pay for wasted wind power as new turbines in Scotland are paid to switch off, according to new forecasts.
Poor electricity grid infrastructure means energy created by turbines in Scotland cannot reach homes in England on very windy days.
Last year Britain wasted enough wind power for a million homes, but new turbines built over the next decade would see that figure grow fivefold by 2030, according to think tank Carbon Tracker.
The cost to pay wind farms to switch off at these times and buy gas to fill in the shortfall would rise to £3.5 billion a year, according to Carbon Tracker’s analysis. That would add an average of £200 to annual household energy bills.
Bottlenecks in the planning process
The problem has been blamed on bottlenecks in the planning process which can take up to seven years for major new electricity cable projects.
Meanwhile, the construction of wind farms has grown steadily to help meet the Government’s net zero goals.
As a result, wind generation in Scotland is expected to grow four times faster by 2030 than the cables required to send the power across the border.
Scotland can currently produce 10GW of electricity from its wind farms on peak days, but the grid has the capacity to transport just 6GW.
With Scotland accounting for just 10 per cent of the country’s electricity demand, an excess of power would be created on days with high wind and low demand if turbine owners were not paid to switch off.
National Grid paid Scottish wind farms to stop generating on more than 200 occasions last year while paying gas power stations in England to increase output to compensate.
“The electricity grid is not fit for purpose because investments are not increasing in step with the rapid growth of wind power,” said report author Lorenzo Sani.
‘Grid can’t support Government’s plans’
“Without significant improvement in the permitting timeframes for critical energy transmission infrastructure – the grid can’t support the Government’s plans to decarbonise generation by 2035 or deliver on its vision of ‘affordable, homegrown, clean energy’.”
The Government is looking at ways to speed up connections, including forcing slow-moving projects to the back of the queue.
Carbon Tracker said building new subsea cables would be the cheapest and most effective way to solve the problem.
The cost of two new undersea cables between England and Scotland would be around £3.7 billion, but could save £1.7 billion in annual wind curtailment costs, the report found.
“We’ve known for years that more renewables need to be built to meet our goals, but the network has not kept pace, creating bottlenecks and constraints in the system, and this is costing consumers hundreds of millions of pounds,” said Barnaby Wharton from industry body RenewableUK. “The solution to this problem is clear: building more grid is essential to getting low cost, low carbon power to consumers and reducing our reliance on gas imports.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Since 2010, we’ve increased the amount of renewable energy connected to the grid by 500 per cent – the second highest amount in Europe.
“This has meant installing 3790MW of additional capacity across all renewables in 2022 alone - enough to power 3.8 million homes.
“We continue to support more renewable projects to come online, including onshore wind if there is local community backing, as clean, more affordable energy brings down costs for consumers and boosts our long-term energy security.”
Image: 'It is the First Sister of North Korea who wields real power,' writes Sung-Yoon Lee CREDIT: Nigel Buchananby / Editing by Germán & CoThe rise of North Korea’s most dangerous woman
Tipped to be the future leader, Kim Jong-un’s sister Yo-jong reportedly ordered the executions of officials for ‘getting on her nerves’
The Telegraph By Sung-Yoon Lee, 8 June 2023 Under a foggy February sky, a plane made its descent towards Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Inside sat 23 passengers – five officials, three reporters and the rest bodyguards. But one mattered above all.
At 1.46pm, Korea Standard Time, on 9 February 2018, the Soviet-era Ilyushin-62 touched down. It was the first time a direct descendant of North Korea’s dynastic founder Kim Il-sung had set foot on South Korean soil since Kim Il-sung himself in July 1950, one month after invading the South.
Cameras clamoured to catch a glimpse of the guests. First to emerge from the airport was Kim Yong-nam, the then-90-year-old nominal head of the North Korean mission, who got into the first of two black sedans. Then, shadowed by a tall, male North Korean bodyguard and a female South Korean bodyguard, came a slightly built woman, around 30 years old. As she made her way to the second car, her gaze was still and her posture erect, as though she was entirely at ease with being at the centre of such a historic moment.
This was Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un. As the youngest of the late leader Kim Jong-il’s seven children, she was doted on from childhood, known as ‘sweet princess Yo-jong’ to her parents. But unlike her other brother Kim Jong-chol, a royal sibling without real power, Kim Yo-jong was also ambitious.
From at least 2014 she had been ‘censor in chief’, running the nation’s Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD), whose mission is to indoctrinate North Koreans with state ideology. Her role in government has dramatically increased since 2018, and she has played an integral part in statecraft, expanding her dynasty’s power by drawing on lessons learned from her father – along the way earning the nicknames of ‘bloodthirsty demon’ and ‘devil woman’ from certain North Korean officials.
And yet until that South Korea trip, few outside her country had even heard of her.
For two days, as the mysterious princess from Pyongyang attended lunches, receptions and the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she had South Koreans enthralled, despite doing very little besides walking, sitting, shaking hands, ignoring US vice president Mike Pence in the Olympic stands, infrequently smiling and frequently looking down her nose at South Koreans – including President Moon Jae-in.
Kim Yo-jong alongside North Korea's nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam and behind Mike Pence as she watches the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea CREDIT: AP
She didn’t give a single public statement or interview. The only moment that betrayed what she really thought of anything came during the opening ceremony. When the US athletes made their entrance, she stayed in her seat while others applauded, her nose in the air, scowling slightly. (By then US-North Korea relations were at a particularly low ebb, with much name-calling between Kim Jong-un and then-President Trump, that ‘mentally deranged US dotard’.)
Kim Yo-jong eschewed small talk at photo ops too, and sat silently, her face expressionless, while others made polite chit-chat about the weather. Yet throughout that 56-hour trip, she was the talk of the nation and beyond.
Press commentary was over the top, unpicking every detail from her plain black outfits and the flower-shaped clip that kept her hair back in a ‘no-nonsense style’, through to the fact that she was seen wearing thick make-up, even though she usually wore little of it at all. What could this mean? One expert concluded that her eyeshadow must be positive news – a sign that she took her mission seriously.
‘She is not only pretty but also polite!’ gushed another commentator after a wrangle over seating in the airport VIP room. In their excitement, they failed to see what was really at play: the South Korean hosts had indicated to Kim Yong-nam to take the centre seat but he motioned to the princess to take it instead. With a smile, she pointed for him to sit. ‘How gracious she is!’ remarked South Korean pundits, not noticing that Kim Yo-jong’s outstretched fingers were less a gesture of respect than the boss telling her underling to sit down.
Kim Yo-jong arrives to attend the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea CREDIT: AFP
Had she wanted to show true deference, Kim Yo-jong would have motioned with both hands cupped. But imperviousness and self-confidence bred from an early age do not lend themselves to modesty; and here she was calmly exuding arrogance.
The most important event of her trip was a visit with President Moon at the Blue House, then the presidential office and mansion, followed by a luncheon. It would be here that she delivered a personal letter from her brother, paving the way for a series of historic meetings between the North and South Korean leaders.
That this letter was delivered by Kim Yo-jong, not Kim Yong-nam – a government veteran of six decades, who had for the past 20 years been President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the rubber-stamp parliament – spoke volumes. It was a snapshot of a peculiarity in North Korean political culture, in which official ranks often belie the true hierarchy, and the lives of cabinet members and four-star generals can hang on the whims of a real power-holder of a much lower rank. Indeed Kim Yo-jong could, if she wished, order the execution of any one of the 250-strong Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, except Kim Jong-un.
It is the First Sister of North Korea who wields real power.
When Kim Il-sung died in 1994 and Kim Jong-il became the Supreme Leader, the outside world – even foreign intelligence agencies – knew little about the new man, nor his seven children, born to four different women. Of his three youngest children – Jong-chol, Jong-un and Yo-jong, all born to his most favoured consort, dancer Ko Yong-hui – they knew nothing at all.
Image source: Media / Editing by Germán & CoCyberattacks on renewables: Europe power sector's dread in chaos of war
Reuters by Nora Buli, Nina Chestney and Christoph Steitz, June 15, 2023, nowOSLO/LONDON/FRANKFURT, June 15 (Reuters) - Saboteurs target a nation leading the world in clean energy. They hack into vulnerable wind and solar power systems. They knock out digitalized energy grids. They wreak havoc.
It's the stuff of nightmares for European power chiefs.
Henriette Borgund knows attackers can find weaknesses in the defences of a big renewables power company - she's found them herself. She joined Norway's Hydro (NHY.OL) as an "ethical hacker" last April, bringing years of experience in military cyberdefence to bear at a time of war in Europe and chaos in energy markets.
"I am not sure I want to comment on how often we find holes in our system. But what I can say is that we have found holes in our system," she told Reuters at Hydro's Oslo HQ, declining to detail the nature of the vulnerabilities for security reasons.
Hydro is among several large power producers shoring up their cyberdefences due in significant part to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which they say has ramped up the threat of hacker attacks on their operations, according to Reuters interviews with a dozen executives from seven of Europe's biggest players.
"We established last year, after the start of the Ukraine war, that the risk of cyber sabotage has increased," said Michael Ebner, information security chief at German utility EnBW (EBKG.DE), which is expanding its 200-strong cyber security team to protect operations ranging from wind and solar to grids.
The executives all said the sophistication of Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine had provided a wake-up call to how vulnerable digitalized and interconnected power systems could be to attackers. They're nervously monitoring a hybrid war where physical energy infrastructure has already been targeted, from the Nord Stream gas pipelines to the Kakhovka dam.
"The cyber campaigns that Russia has been running against Ukraine have been very targeted at Ukraine. But we have been able to observe and learn from it," said Torstein Gimnes Are, cybersecurity chief at Hydro, an aluminium producer as well as Norway's fourth-largest power generator.
Gimnes Are said he feared a nation state could work with hacker groups to infect a network with malicious software - though like the other executives declined to divulge details on specific attacks or threats, citing corporate confidentiality.
Ukraine's SBU security service told Reuters that Russia launched more than 10 cyberattacks a day, on average, with the Ukrainian energy sector a priority target. It said Russia had tried to destroy digital networks and cause power cuts, and that missile attacks on facilities were often accompanied by cyberattacks.
Russian officials have said that the West repeatedly blames Moscow for cyberattacks without providing evidence and that the United States as well as its allies carry out offensive cyber operations against it. The Russian foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the views of the power companies or the Ukrainian SBU's assertions.
The European power companies, as well as half a dozen independent tech security experts, stressed that the digitalized and interconnected technology of the thousands of renewable assets and energy grids springing up across Europe presented major - and growing - vulnerabilities to infiltration.
"The new energy world is decentralized. This means that we have many small units - such as wind and solar plants but also smart meters - which are connected in a digital way," said Swantje Westpfahl, director at Germany's Institute for Security and Safety.
"This networking increases the risks because there are significantly more possible entry points for attacks, with much greater potential impact."
TRITON VIRUS SHUTS PLANT
The possible effects of a cyberattack range from capture of sensitive data and power outages to the destruction of a physical asset, said James Forrest, executive vice president at Capgemini, which advises companies on security risks.
He cited, in particular, the risk of malware such as the Triton virus, which hackers used to remotely take over the safety systems of a Saudi petrochemical plant in 2017 and shut it down.
While malware packages like Triton might be exotic algorithmic weapons, the most common mode of entry used by hackers looking to deliver them is more familiar, according to the executives and experts interviewed: via phishing emails designed to elicit data from employees like network passwords.
Such attacks are "more or less constant", according to Cem Gocgoren, information security chief at Svenska Kraftnaet. The Swedish grid operator has roughly quadrupled its cybersecurity team to about 60 over about the last four years and is raising awareness among staff. "We have to make them understand that we are under attack all the time. It's the new normal."
Hydro's ethical hacker Borgund echoed this sense of a relentless barrage via phishing, which she described as the "first initial vector" of cyberattackers.
CYBERATTACK ON SATELLITE
Traditional power plants like gas and nuclear typically operate on airgapped IT infrastructure that's sealed off from the outside, making them less susceptible to cyberattacks than physical sabotage, said Stephan Gerling, senior researcher at Kasperky's ICS CERT, which studies and detects cyber threats on industrial facilities.
By contrast, the ever-growing number of smaller renewable installations around Europe run on diverse third-party systems that are digitally hooked up to the power grid, and are below the power-generation monitoring threshold set by safety authorities, he added.
This kind of interconnectedness was demonstrated last February when a Russian cyberattack on a Ukrainian satellite communications network knocked out the remote monitoring of more than 5,800 wind turbines of Germany's Enercon and shut them down, said Mathias Boeswetter, head of IT security at German energy industry group BDEW.
While the incident did not affect the electricity grid, it showed the escalating cyber vulnerabilities posed by the energy transition, he added.
KEY TO HACKING A WIND FARM
Hacking into a wind farm can be relatively easy.
Researchers at the University of Tulsa conducted an experiment by hacking into unnamed wind farms in the United States in 2017 to test their vulnerabilities, with the permission of the wind farm operators, according to a report on cyber threats to energy by risk consultancy DNV.
The researchers picked a lock to gain access to a chamber in the base of a wind turbine, the report said. They accessed the turbine's server and got a list of IP addresses representing every networked turbine in the field. They then stopped the turbine from turning.
Driven by government efforts to wean nations off fossil fuels and double down on renewables, wind and solar power accounted for more than a fifth of European energy demand in 2021, according to EU data, a share expected to double by 2030.
E.ON (EONGn.DE) - Europe's largest operator of energy grids with a network sprawling 1 million miles - has also observed a rising risk of cyberattacks, its CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said at the group's shareholder meeting in May.
The company has expanded its dedicated cyber staff to around 200 over the years, it said in emailed comments, adding the group had long recognized the issue's relevance.
"Putting cybersecurity at the top of the priority list only after the start of the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis would have been a serious omission," it said.
The European power sector as whole may be unprepared for the scale of the security challenge - that's the view of many workers in the sector who say a lack of in-house cybersecurity skills was the biggest obstacle to effectively guarding against attack, according to a separate DNV survey of around 600 energy professionals carried out in February and March.
"Companies in the energy space, their core business is producing energy, not cybersecurity," said Jalal Bouhdada, CEO of cybersecurity firm Applied Risk, a division of DNV.
"This means that they must work diligently to secure every aspect of their infrastructure because malicious actors only need to find one gap to exploit."