Power and Energy

The convergence of automation and security stands as a cornerstone in the evolution of digital substations, which has enhanced efficiency, reliability, and performance. However, the proliferation of digital solutions also introduces new challenges, particularly in ensuring the robust security of critical infrastructure.

 

 

The manufacturing sector has undergone a rapid evolution since the introduction of advanced, intelligent and connected industrial control systems and factory automations, due to the challenges from globalized competition, frequent changes in raw material costs and newly emerging market demands. Today, it is common to see that major manufacturing plants have adopted a great number of IT and OT technologies, which not only optimize their productiveness, but also enable them with 24/7 real-time visibility and management of their manufacturing environments. In general, this is the generation often referred as Industrial 4.0.

Most of the modern multi-story green buildings come with BAS (building automation system) for smart control of air circulation, water conservation and building climates. That is the reason why BAS-empowered buildings are sometimes referred to “smart buildings”. The BAS is a distributed control system based on computer networking to integrate monitoring and control subsystems, including HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), lighting, fire, security, humidity and other significant factors to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the comforts for the residents.

Smart LED street illumination has been embraced by multiple municipal governments worldwide, as the starting point for IoT-based smart city establishment. Since the street lighting infrastructure already exists, many city planners take smart lighting as the opportunity to enable their IoT foundation by consolidating sensors, wireless communication points and open-interface technologies. Indeed, with the concepts of IoT and 5G technology, connected LED street lighting is a highly efficient choice of illumination in both costs and energy consumption, and also remotely manageable without excessive human control.

Critical infrastructures are constantly encountered with physical security threats due to the increasingly reported incidents. Since these utility providing plants, such as power substation, renewable energy plants, nuclear plants, oil and gas refinery, hydropower dam, water supply facility and other heavy industries, are mostly located in remote areas with vast coverage, real-time monitoring and surveillance for critical infrastructure have become a highly discussed subject to prevent uprising threats such as intruding theft and terrorism.

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