Electricity Infrastructure to Enhance Safety and Security

One of the most critical infrastructures to facilitate growth and enhance the lifestyle of the people, the ‘power sector’ in India has always been at the centre of policymaking. All the governments have given attention to boost the electricity infrastructure and make it accessible to all.

Though the sector has witnessed encouraging progress in terms of infrastructure over the years but there needs to be done much more to bring the standards at par with the global one. This will not only prove advantageous in terms of providing services to consumers but will also strengthen the safety part in the sector. The necessity to address the safety and security issues in the sector has broadly been recognised a long time ago. The time is ripe enough to formulate action plans and execute the same.

Electricity utilities represent one of the vital infrastructures of society; almost every aspect of life relies heavily on the supply of power. Over the time, the system has become large, complex and interconnected due to various economic, regulatory, social, and operational components. The geographical expansion and the comprehensive interconnection of power distribution can play a pivotal role in maintaining the dependability of these systems. Their capacity to overcome unexpected disruptions can be strengthened by aggregating loads and effectively managing supply and demand. These are possible only if the related infrastructure exists.

While the generation of power, availability, supply, cost, and reliability have been major considerations during power-related decisions, security and protection issues are increasingly demanding careful attention. Various factors such as constant technological developments of malicious players have posed a threat to the critical components of power including electricity networks, power stations and Smart Grids. Any malfunctioning in these systems can have catastrophic consequences of disruptions of power. This is a demanding situation. In such scenarios, surveillance and security technologies are used as safety instrument that maintains situational understanding and provide proper alerts. Surveillance infrastructure is necessary to recognize quickly the occurrence of adverse conditions. Different surveillance technologies can be utilized for improving the safety and security of electricity utilities and other major resources and vital infrastructures.

Due to the extensive adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the power sector, it has become vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The enormous scale of electricity systems and their interdependencies with other crucial infrastructures can cause major threats like attacks on the system targeting its components, population, and other interconnected utility network. It can create huge threats to assets like data, processes, components and subsystems. It can further result in worse power, technological and economic disasters. It is quite obvious that traditional security solutions are ineffective to deal with the situation. Boosting cyber security infrastructure is quintessential. Besides prevention threats, it will allow security managers to detect potential danger and respond proactively.
 

Power theft has been a major operational problem for electricity transmission and distribution in India that bears an estimated annual financial loss of around $16 billion. The theft in the system occurs in the form ranging from stealing electrical equipment to the usage of service connection. The power companies and the general public both have to bear the consequences of the problem. While the companies register revenue loss, the people receive disruption in the supply. It also causes an increased load on the generating station. It has been a cumbersome task for utility companies to detect the prevent theft. With the adoption of technology, it has become a little bit easy to ensure security, but many more need to be done.

The blackout caused by a collapse in the supply or distribution system has been a major challenge before the consumers and the sector. Such an event affects economic production, payment systems, telecommunications, traffic system and the comfort of the stakeholders involved. Most of the time, it happens due to overload on the network and sometimes due to infrastructure failure and simultaneous contingencies. Sometimes, extreme weather conditions such as severe storms also cause the occurrence of the event. Robust infrastructure and better mechanism to control the supply side is the only solution to this problem and the losses caused. While some incidents can be avoided by adopting proactive approaches, some can be dealt with in the later stages.

Load shedding is a preventive measure and a deliberate attempt to avoid an unusual situation. But it’s a matter to ponder over as to why electricity supply is stopped? Is there no other way to deal with the circumstances? Mostly, the event occurs in an endeavour to maintain system balance when supply is expected to be short of the requirements. This is essentially associated with power generation capacity but it’s important to understand why and it happens. A robust system of measuring the need and requirements and the supply can be extremely helpful in avoiding such steps. The resilience of the electricity system needs to be enhanced to absorb, accommodate, and recover from both short-term shocks and long-term changes. The ability of the power system to return to a normal state post the unexpected events will hugely depend on infrastructure and especially the surveillance system.

The operations of the electricity system is a little bit complicated and dangerous such as supply through naked wires hanging over the head. They pose an immense threat in cases of severe weather conditions and breakdown caused by local factors. Every year several cases come to notice where open wires act as the main culprit. It also provokes people to take illegal connections, adding to the power theft. Though the covered wires have come to use but the pace of the shift needs to be boosted to achieve complete coverage in a short time.

Electricity security is nothing but the system’s capability to guarantee a continuous supply of electricity by resisting and recovering from disturbances and abnormal situations. It is indispensable to bring technical, economic, and political actions together to enhance the security of the entire system and prevent circumstances caused by power transition, cyber threat, and climate effects. In this security, related infrastructure can be extremely helpful thus all the stakeholders need to plan and implement a proper strategy. It will not only be financially advantageous for the players, but also end consumers.

- Manoj Kumar Chaudhary, Founder & Director, Vensor Electricals Pvt Ltd