Energy securityProtecting the U.S. Wind Energy Infrastructure

As the planet becomes more reliant on computers and more connected via the internet, our nation’s critical infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

This is especially true for power utilities and the electric grid, which offer tempting targets to hostile actors due to the ability to cause widespread power outages or other disruptions.

Indeed, cyber criminals have already infiltrated the nation’s power infrastructure, and experts say now is the time to protect these vital assets. Critical infrastructure in the U.S., including the electric grid, is “increasingly under attack by foreign adversaries,” the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Chairman Neil Chatterjee, told lawmakers in June 2019.

Until recently, renewables such as wind have drawn less attention from cyber criminals because they made up a small percentage of the nation’s overall power generation.

But now, the cybersecurity of wind plants is becoming increasingly important. Over 50,000 wind turbines with a combined capacity of about 100 GW are operating in the United States, providing 6.6% of the nation’s electricity in 2018.

INL saysthat this is why researchers at Idaho National Laboratory are leading several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO)-funded efforts to protect the nation’s wind generation infrastructure.

Along with industry and researchers from four national laboratories, the collaboration also seeks to explore how wind energy could reliably and resiliently contribute to military and disaster relief applications.

“As wind generation in the U.S. continues to grow, it becomes more of a critical generating asset of our bulk electric system,” said Jake Gentle, a senior power systems engineer at INL.

The current state of cybersecurity readiness at wind plants throughout the U.S. is somewhat mixed, said Gentle. But, in general, cybersecurity for wind power is behind in comparison to other types of large-scale power generation such as coal and nuclear power plants.

Part of the problem is that ownership and operation of wind plants is dispersed compared with other forms of power generation. Dozens of utility-scale wind plant owners operate across the United States and, as of 2018, independent power producers owned 83% of all wind energy assets. And, unlike conventional power plants commissioned, owned and operated by a utility, wind plants often change ownership multiple times throughout a plant’s full life cycle.

Further, wind generation facilities currently fall under less stringent federal cybersecurity rules than other sources of power, although more stringent rules are in the works.