Page 87 - IRMSA Risk Report 2023

KIREN MAHARAJ: in energy sources, particularly reducing
It is important not to be to single-minded with reliance on nuclear power, and placing greater
respect to the causes of a national grid failure. It emphasis on renewable energy and distributed
could also be caused by natural disasters such as generation. It highlighted the importance of
hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, or severe storms incorporating seismic resilience and safety
can damage power infrastructure, including measures in critical power infrastructure.
transmission lines, substations, and power plants.
We are quite aware of equipment failure but we • Lessons from the 2014 Ukraine Power Grid
should also consider cyberattacks. The increasing Cyber Attack: The cyber-attack on Ukraine’s
reliance on digital systems and interconnected power grid in 2014 demonstrated the
infrastructure makes the electricity grid vulnerable vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure to
to cyber-attacks. cyber threats. The incident highlighted the
need for robust cybersecurity measures,
Malicious actors, such as hackers or state-sponsored including network segmentation, regular
entities, may target power systems to disrupt system patching, employee training on cyber
operations. Lastly, do not ignore the possibility hygiene, and improved incident response
of human error, whether genuine or intentional. capabilities. It underscored the importance of
Human error can contribute to grid failures. information sharing and collaboration between
Mistakes made during maintenance, repairs, or the energy sector and cybersecurity experts to
operational procedures can have catastrophic detect and mitigate cyber threats effectively.
consequences to equipment failure and cascading
outages. • Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake
(Japan): The Great East Japan Earthquake in
We need to prevent a national electricity grid 2011 caused extensive damage to the power
failure at all costs and several risk treatment infrastructure, leading to widespread power
strategies can be implemented. Here are five outages. The event highlighted the importance
key lessons that have been learnt from other of incorporating earthquake-resistant designs
countries regarding national electricity grid and construction techniques in power facilities,
failures. These lessons have been drawn from transmission lines, and substations located in
various real-world incidents and case studies: seismically active regions. It also underscored
the significance of community-level resilience,
• Lessons from the 2003 Northeast Blackout including microgrid systems, to ensure
(United States): The 2003 Northeast Blackout localized power supply during emergencies.
was one of the most extensive power outages
in U.S. history, affecting millions of people • Lessons from the 1998 Ice Storm (Canada):
across the North-eastern United States and The 1998 Ice Storm in Eastern Canada caused
parts of Canada. This event highlighted the prolonged power outages due to ice build-
importance of improved situational awareness, up on power lines and infrastructure damage.
real-time monitoring, and communication This event emphasized the importance of
between grid operators to detect and proactive tree trimming and vegetation
respond to grid disturbances effectively. It management around power lines to reduce
emphasized the need for coordinated regional the risk of damage during severe weather
response and led to the development of conditions. It also highlighted the need for
more robust protocols and procedures for improved coordination between utilities,
grid reliability and emergency management. emergency response agencies, and community
organizations to efficiently allocate resources
• Lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear and support affected populations.
Disaster (Japan): The Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear disaster in 2011, triggered by a These lessons learned highlight the importance
massive earthquake and tsunami, resulted in of various aspects such as situational awareness,
the shutdown of multiple nuclear reactors and diversification of energy sources, cybersecurity
prolonged power outages in the region. This measures, infrastructure resilience, and effective
event emphasized the need for diversification coordination and communication.

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