RENEWABLE ENERGY AND POWER GENERATION FACILITY
Case Study
Customer Profile
The customer, a Renewable Energy Power Station is a concentrated solar power facility that
currently has an installed capacity exceeding 250 Megawatts. It is comprised of various solar
renewable energy technologies, including a solar tower, photovoltaic plant, and others.
The facility serves hundreds of thousands of homes and utilizes over 400,000 parabolic mirrors,
more than 100,000 solar panels, and 50,000 computer-controlled heliostat mirrors. It also features a
CSP tower that stands taller than 200 meters, making it one of the tallest towers globally.
In addition, the facility uses SCADA systems, including the Honeywell DCS, Experion, to monitor and
control its operations.
Customer’s Challenges
Energy facilities worldwide are classified as critical national infrastructure (CNI) due to the high risk
of cyber-attacks that can disrupt nationwide routines, sabotage national infrastructures, and jeopardize human lives.
In recent years, we have witnessed a wide variety of cyber-attacks targeting energy facilities, ranging
from sporadic ransomware attacks to well-organized and well-funded attacks at the state level.
Certain countries, such as Israel, are targeted throughout the year, specifically their CNI facilities,
making their resilience and restoration capabilities crucial.
To protect CNI facilities, relevant guidelines and regulations, such as IEC 62443, NERC-CIP, EPCIP, and more, have been developed. When building a defense-in-depth architecture for energy facilities, the most appropriate countermeasures must be selected after assessing risk tolerance, priorities, probabilities, and severities.
One of the most relevant defense-in-depth requirements is outlined in section 7 of IEC 62443-3-3 standard, addressing resource availability requirements, including control system backup, recovery, and protection measures. The energy facility's cybersecurity and operations teams were looking for a solution that meets the regulatory cybersecurity requirements while also provides reassure continuous facility operation.
The Solution
The facility has identified the critical systems. The Salvador Tech Backup and Recovery Platform was gradually being deployed. One of those critical parts utilizing Salvador's Platform controls the Boiler’s heat exchanger in the conventional steam-turbine generator that produces electricity.
The platform also addressed the different parts of the DCS system, utilizing a variety of Windows OS types such as Windows 10 and Windows 7.
Moreover, an automatic and frequent backup procedure with a simple and straightforward recovery procedure was implemented, enabling any renewable power generation facility personnel to perform a instant recovery with a single click. This will ensure that the facility can recover quickly and efficiently in case of any disruptions or failures.
Results
Cyber security regulation compliance.
Providing operational continuity for critical parts of the renewable energy power generation facility. From few days to a few minutes’ recovery process.
Utilizing Salvador’s management suite with the facility's CSMS (Cyber Security Management System) and allowing logs-based CERT and SOC connectivity as well as meeting IEC 62443-2-1 requirements.
Allowing any on-prem personnel to attend service interruptions, from cyber-attacks or routine operation and maintenance, and recover in less than a minute.
Additionally, the facility has full visibility of the backup status through a single-point monitoring system, which seamlessly deploys the backup procedure.
The cost of one hour of downtime for electric utilities is over $300,000. With the use of Salvador's CRUs, the facility's potential for savings, even with few hours downtime prevention per year, can result in an annual significant savings.