Dr Alison Halford, Research Fellow for Cyber-physical Advances, Centre for Computational Science and Mathematical Modelling, Coventry University
30 March 2022
Professor Elena Gaura, EnergyREV's cyber-physical theme leader, has recently been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 'Resilience Beyond Observed Capabilities (RBOC)' Network Plus grant to support a research agenda that addresses security threats and challenges facing the UK in the future.
Led by Professor David McIlhatton, Coventry University, in collaboration with several other universities, this £2.4 million award aims to help the UK defence sector develop, for the first time, an extensive network to consider how future threats and resilience can be understood, considered, and approached through research, policy, and practice. In aiming to help government and industry prepare for and respond to major attacks from hostile actors, over the next twelve months as one of the network partners, EnergyREV will be working with RBOC to address growing concerns around national threats to the energy infrastructure.
Drawing upon some of the cyber-physical work package outputs, such as new plug-and-play energy services and Virtual Power Plants, EnergyREV will provide expertise in addressing and devising technical solutions that improve the resilience and security of energy systems. RBOC presents an opportunity to test these tools on federated, meshed energy production and demand scenarios that include emulated security threats. By being part of the network, EnergyREV will play a vital role in better understanding how to defend against hostile attacks on energy infrastructures and design future Smart Local Energy Systems that have the capacity and capability to withstand security-related challenges and risks.