![]() All rights reserved.The anticipated benefits stemming from smart, digital grids cannot materialise without guaranteeing appropriate levels of interoperability - i.e. © 2022 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s). CSIS does not take specific policy positions. ![]() Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. government.Ĭommentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s) and not those of CSIS, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Zhanna Malekos Smith is a senior associate (non-resident) with the Strategic Technologies Program and the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., and an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at the U.S. For these reasons, the fate of Ukraine’s grid is a symbolic power struggle. However, recall in 2021 that all UN members of the Open-Ended Working Group on responsible state behavior in cyberspace-including the Russian Federation- affirmed that states should not conduct or knowingly support activity that “intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use and operation of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.” Although Russia has not publicly displayed its full array of offensive cyber tools at the time of this writing, there is heightened escalatory potential for cyber conflict between the European Union and the United States. Second, assuming that ENSTO-E grants Ukrenergo’s request to connect to the European Union’s grid, shared by NATO members, if Russian actors then target Ukraine’s grid, would this be regarded as an “attack” against the European Union’s critical infrastructure?.The attack caused a one-hour blackout, impacting “every circuit breaker in a transmission station north of Kyiv.” In 2016, Ukraine’s electrical grid was targeted again by Russian hackers who inserted blackout malware, Industroyer, into Ukrenergo’s power systems. Not only did the attack impact more than 225,000 users in western Ukraine, but it also clogged up local customer service call centers, so that residents could not report outages. Ukraine’s electrical grid was knocked offline by Russian hackers in December 2015-it was the first cyber operation targeting another country’s electrical grid. First, there is renewed speculation that Russian-linked hackers may target Ukraine’s grid for a third time.The Wall Street Journal reports that it could take weeks for ENSTO-E to accommodate Ukrenergo’s connection request.įrom a cyber threat standpoint, this is alarming for two reasons: It also unfortunately means that the Ukrainian power system is vulnerable to outages and blackouts. ![]() This means it is not connected to an external grid. Presently, Ukraine’s electrical grid is in a precarious “ isolation mode” state, explains Kadri Simson, the EU energy commissioner. While ENSTO-E has not yet granted Ukraine’s request, on February 28 the organization issued a public statement acknowledging “the exceptional efforts of Ukrenergo to operate and maintain the power system in these difficult times,” and vowed to continue supporting Ukraine. Coincidentally, on February 24, the very same day that Ukrenergo was conducting a practice disconnection test from Russia’s grid, Russia invaded Ukraine.įollowing the invasion, Ukrenergo petitioned ENTSO-E for “ emergency synchronization” with the Continental Europe power system. Since 2017, Ukraine’s national grid operator-Ukrenergo-has sought to sever ties with Russia’s electrical grid and instead synchronize networks with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). MaThis quick take is part of our Crisis Crossroads series, which highlights timely analysis by CSIS scholars on the evolving situation in Ukraine and its security, economic, energy, and humanitarian effects.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |