Thanks to this evolution Europe has seen the interconnection of national/regional power systems, offering an important number of benefits, such as the possibility to generate power in the economically most attractive areas and to divide the responsibility of frequency and voltage regulation among distributed generators, thus providing a good basis for a convenient energy trade. The use of ICT extended the concept of interconnected Energy System to the concept of Energy Smart Grid. The integration based on large scale, and potentially open, data networks poses serious questions to the security implications of the use of ICT technologies in Smart Grids.

The effects of a cyber attack from a remote part of the grid might have so large implications to impact the citizen of the entire European Union. Being the full potentiality of Energy Smart Grids in course of development, there is still a lack of harmonization in term of system knowledge and understanding. The cyber security topic is still embryonic and poorly implemented by regulators and energy operators. The project is designed to answer to the pressing demand of knowledge and best practices on the cyber security aspects in the Energy Smart Grids. It is conceived to raise the know-how of government bodies and operators by providing a comprehensive analysis of ICT architectures, vulnerabilities, interdependencies, standards and best practices related to the Smart Grids.

The project outcome will facilitate the information sharing process involving the existing Working Groups on the matter in a sort of European Excellence Network on Smart Grid ICT Security. The involvement in the project consortium and target groups of the relevant actors will guarantee the beneficial impact on the overall security of European energy infrastructures.