Grids & Integration

Marine energy is renewable and generally predictable. It could thus compensate for the unplanned intermittency of solar and wind generation, its proponents argue. But several challenges still need to be overcome for the energy to become widely used.

An international research team developed a multi-stage intrusion detection system that uses supervised and unsupervised AI techniques to detect and mitigate cyber threats in smart renewable energy grids. The system can reportedly achieve high accuracy, low false positives, and real-time detection, outperforming traditional intrusion detection system models.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency will use a new, structured framework developed by Fraunhofer IOSB-AST to classify cybersecurity incidents in the energy sector. The methodology enables comprehensive risk assessments, from initial reports to systemic and economic impacts, supporting consistent evaluation across the entire energy value chain.

Accelerating energy transitions in major economies can create positive spillover effects worldwide, even amid geopolitical tensions, with North America and the Eurozone boosting progress in other regions.

Spain’s grid operator Red Eléctrica and regulator CNMC have launched real-time voltage control services, allowing renewable energy installations to provide dynamic grid support under a new regulatory framework.

Researchers found that widely deployed smart meters pose a “massive” cybersecurity risk, potentially enabling data manipulation, energy theft, and service disruption. They propose a new detection method using state estimation and statistical boundaries to more accurately identify cyberattacks, outperforming traditional techniques despite higher computational demands.

Tokyo’s grid has joined every other transmission system operator area in Japan in experiencing economic curtailment, as solar output growth outpaces the flexibility of the country’s largest regional power market.

Data centers are using batteries to run more AI on the same grid connection.

In an interview with pv magazine, Jay Johnson, the CTO of US-based cybersecurity firm DERSec, explains that PV systems face cybersecurity risks that extend far beyond inverters, as demonstrated by a December attack on Polish solar plants where wiper malware targeted substation equipment rather than the inverters themselves. Vulnerabilities often lie in backhaul communication channels like APIs and mobile apps, making layered defenses, network segmentation, and vigilant monitoring essential to safeguard distributed energy resources.

Spain’s Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (Ciuden), a government energy research foundation, has completed operational testing of a 1 MW/8 MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) system at its Cubillos del Sil technology center, which it says is the largest vanadium flow battery in Europe dedicated to applied research.