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2006 | Buch

Critical Infrastructures at Risk

Securing the European Electric Power System

herausgegeben von: A.V. Gheorghe, M. Masera, M Weijnen, De L. Vries

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buchreihe : Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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Über dieses Buch

Europe witnessed in the last years a number of significant power contingencies. Some of them revealed the potentiality of vast impact on the welfare of society and triggered pressing questions on the reliability of electric power systems. Society has incorporated electricity as an inherent component, indispensable for achieving the expected level of quality of life. Therefore, any impingement on the continuity of the electricity service would be able to distress society as a whole, affecting individuals, social and economic activities, other infrastructures and essential government functions. It would be possible to hypothesize that in extreme situations this could even upset national security.

This book explores the potential risks and vulnerabilities of the European electricity infrastructure, other infrastructures and our society as whole increasingly depend on. The work was initiated by the need to verify the potential effects of the ongoing market and technical transformation of the infrastructure, which is fundamentally changing its operation and performance. The final aim is to set the basis for an appropriate industrial and political European-wide response to the risk challenges.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Introduction
Abstract
This book examines the European electric power system as a specific critical infrastructure, which has experienced profound transformations during the last years and is subject to new risks. The nature of the transformations and the character of the risks demand a proper answer due to the central role of electric power in our societies. Traditional approaches, from risk management to emergency preparedness, fall short of providing adequate solutions.
Adrian Gheorghe, Margot Weijnen, Marcelo Masera, Ivo Bouwmans
Infrastructures at Risk
Abstract
Rapid developments in recent years have led to drastic changes in the way we think about and deal with infrastructures. EU directives called for deregulation of the networked utility infrastructures so that EU common markets could be formed in order to strengthen the EU economy and to achieve a more efficient and high quality service provision. The ensuing liberalisation and internationalisation of the utility sectors affect not only the market structure, but also the physical networks themselves in unprecedented ways.
Ivo Bouwmans, Margot P.C. Weijnen, Adrian Gheorghe
Liberalisation and Internationalisation of the European Electricity Supply System
Abstract
The electricity infrastructure is one of the most finely meshed infrastructures in existence. In Europe, nearly every home and building is connected to it because electricity is essential to the functioning of modern society. Without electricity, the standard of living would be set back by a century and it would become impossible to perform most economic activities.
L.J. De Vries, H.M. De Jong, M.L.C. De Bruijne, H. Glavitsch, H.P.A. Knops
The Security of Information and Communication Systems and the E+I Paradigm
Abstract
This chapter will discuss the Information and Communication Systems (ICS) used in the electric power infrastructure, in light of their relevance for the occurrence and the management of risk-relevant situations.
Marcelo Masera, Alberto Stefanini, Giovanna Dondossola
Governing Risks in the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure
Abstract
In this chapter we will develop a view on the risks and the risk decision processes in the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure (ECEI). We will show that, due to their nature and complexity, the management of some of those risks (the ones with an infrastructure resonance) cannot be left alone to the risk managers within each constituting national or regional power system. The risks to the infrastructure impact society as a whole and have to be governed accordingly – i.e. with the participation of all actors or with acknowledgment of all actors' goals and interests.
Marcelo Masera, Ype Wijnia, Laurens de Vries, Caroline Kuenzi
Concluding Remarks and Recommendations
Abstract
There is a manifest need to secure the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure. Our analysis of the ECEI system and its dynamic behaviour inevitably led to the conclusion that the reliability and quality of electricity service provision to the European citizen are not adequately secured if all actors are allowed to run their activities at subsystem levels in the “old ways” of the pre-liberalisation era. The established lack of supply security applies to the short term as well as to the long term security of electricity service provision. There are multiple reasons for this conclusion: the emerging European Critical Electricity Infrastructure (ECEI) – including the European electricity market – is a fundamentally different construct from the old situation of interconnected national grids. Even if the latter situation seems comparable with the current ECEI in terms of geographical scale and scope, the complexity of the ECEI is beyond comparison, as it reaches far beyond physical network complexity. With the liberalisation process, many new players have entered the playing field, new roles have been introduced, the rules of the game have changed and are still changing. The complexity of the multi-actor network is unprecedented, and its behaviour is highly unpredictable. On the one side, this unpredictability is a consequence of the multitude of actors involved, our lack of insight in their intentional relationships, their strategic behaviour and learning behaviour. On the other side, the evolution of the multi-actor network and the socio-economic subsystem in which it is embedded are subject to many uncertainties pertaining to market development and evolving regulation, technological innovation and institutional change. Given our lack of experience with liberalised electricity markets in Europe, it is evident that we are not able to identify all the risks that are generated by the dynamic interactions between the physical and socio-economic subsystems that constitute the ECEI.
Marcelo Masera, Adrian Gheorghe, Margot Weijnen
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Critical Infrastructures at Risk
herausgegeben von
A.V. Gheorghe
M. Masera
M Weijnen
De L. Vries
Copyright-Jahr
2006
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4020-4364-2
Print ISBN
978-1-4020-4306-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4364-3