BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 25. The recent cyber-attack on Ukraine’s power grid gives reason to believe that another attack may occur on the European interconnector, Trend reports via the research from Moody’s Investors Service.
The unexpected energy imbalances increase the operational challenges for energy transmission system operators (TSOs) in operating the grid at the required frequency (50 Hertz), Moody’s said.
“Significant deviations from 50 Hertz run the risk of equipment damage and further unplanned outages. If greater interconnection leads to more integration of IT networks across European TSOs, this could increase the likelihood of multiple TSOs being impacted by a cyber-attack if mitigating measures are not put in place,” the researchers noted.
Meanwhile, according to Moody’s, the EU countries have seen the joint European energy grid as essential in securing energy supply, increasing competition, maintaining affordable electricity prices, and meeting decarbonization and climate change policy targets.
“This has led to the EU raising the minimum level of interconnection (import capacity as a proportion of installed generation capacity) for each EU country from 10 percent by 2020 to 15 percent by 2030,” the report said.
However, 16 countries reported being well underway to reach the 15 percent target by 2030, or either having reached it already, Moody’s noted.
As Moody’s explained, the European Commission augmented the (minimum) 15 percent interconnector target for 2030 with “urgency indicators”, aimed at prioritizing interconnection investments in areas where: price differentials between bidding zones or countries, which have widened in recent months, exceed 2 euros per MWh, and nominal throughput the number of connectors in relation to the peak load or to the installed capacity of renewable generation is less than 30 percent.
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