AUSTRALIAN ENERGY SECURITY IN A CONNECTED WORLD Glenn Johnson, Editor, Process Technology
Politics aside, the future of Australian energy networks is looking exciting, with digitalisation and a greater mix of cheaper energy sources coming online — but we mustn’t ignore the elephant in the room: cybersecurity risk.
U
nless you have been living in another country it would have been near impossible to be unaware of the debate over energy security. But then again, with a Prime Minister who has sloganised “engineering and economics” as the Coalition approach to energy security, and the constant Canberra political blame game, it would be no surprise if you have switched off. As with the climate change ‘debate’ before it, it is mainly only the politicians and commentators that we tend to hear from regarding energy, and very little is heard from real experts. That’s not to say that expert opinion is not sought: it’s just that it seems to only be of interest to politicians when the advice given fits in with their current political agenda. Nevertheless, engineers and scientists need to keep on finding real scientific and engineering solutions to the problem of energy security, as they have always done, regardless of the political melodrama. There are many elements to the energy security debate, and to the work going on in the background, whether it be the ‘economics and engineering’ of fossil fuels versus renewables, or energy stor-
4 INSIGHTS 2018
age and energy demand — and of course solving the problem of the reliability and resilience of the distribution network. One such, perhaps more esoteric, element of energy security is cybersecurity: a subject that doesn’t seem to make it into the mass media as a talking point.
Cybersecurity: the third aspect of energy security Energy security, as presented in the media, tends to revolve around two aspects: 1. Ensuring there is sufficient generation to meet demand when it is at its peak. 2. Ensuring that the energy grid can deal with contingencies like faults or generation failures. The achieving of these two goals is obvious and fundamental to achieving a reliable energy supply. In the public media debate we only hear discussions of energy prices for consumers and arguments about resurrecting ageing coal-fired power stations — arguments dumbed down and simplified for mass public consumption.