Critical Infrastructures at Risk [electronic resource] : Securing the European Electric Power System / edited by A.V. Gheorghe, M. Masera, M Weijnen, De L. Vries.

From the contents: 1: Introduction -- 2: Learning from the Past - Electric Power Blackouts and Near Misses -- 3: Infrastructures at Risk -- 4: Liberalisation and Internationalisation of the European Electricity Industry -- 5: The Security of Information and Communication Systems and the E+I Paradigm -- 6: Critical Electricity Infrastructure: Current Experience in Europe -- 7: Governing Risks in the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure -- 8: Concluding Remarks and Recommendations. Appendices. A.5.1 Security Conceptual Frameworks. A.5.2 ICS Security Standards. A.6.1 Critical Information Infrastructures and Risk Analysis Framework. A.6.2 Critical Information Infrastructure Protection - Organizational and Legal Aspects. A.7.1 Profiling the Risk Governance Gap. A.7.2 The Institutional and Regulatory Context for Risk Governance of the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure. A.7.3 Costs of Power Infrastructure Malfunctioning -- References. Glossary.

Europe witnessed in the last years a number of significant power contingencies. Some of them revealed the potentiality of vast impact on the welfare of society and triggered pressing questions on the reliability of electric power systems. Society has incorporated electricity as an inherent component, indispensable for achieving the expected level of quality of life. Therefore, any impingement on the continuity of the electricity service would be able to distress society as a whole, affecting individuals, social and economic activities, other infrastructures and essential government functions. It would be possible to hypothesize that in extreme situations this could even upset national security. This book explores the potential risks and vulnerabilities of the European electricity infrastructure, other infrastructures and our society as whole increasingly depend on. The work was initiated by the need to verify the potential effects of the ongoing market and technical transformation of the infrastructure, which is fundamentally changing its operation and performance. The final aim is to set the basis for an appropriate industrial and political European-wide response to the risk challenges.