No going back to the dark ages
On the night of September 27, 2003 Rome was holding its very own Notte Bianca, the same type of event that we have come to relish a lot in the Maltese islands. Everything was set and the citizens of Rome and tourists were having a good time out. Then,...
On the night of September 27, 2003 Rome was holding its very own Notte Bianca, the same type of event that we have come to relish a lot in the Maltese islands. Everything was set and the citizens of Rome and tourists were having a good time out.
Then, suddenly, sometime after 3 a.m., there was an unexpected downpour and a few minutes later there was a total power blackout. It was not just Rome in total darkness. It was the whole of Italy, except for Sardinia, and parts of Austria and Croatia. By 9 a.m. northern Italy had power again but the authorities were trying hard to explain the cause of the worst blackout in over 20 years.
It seems it was not Italy's fault. Fingers were pointed at France, which generates 20 per cent of Italy's needs, and which was using both the main and back-up lines to deliver electricity. And the storm over Switzerland that caused a short circuit was also mentioned. Italy's national grid lost control of power flowing through the system for no more than four seconds, but it was enough to trigger a domino effect through the country.
What's the moral of the story? European countries have become interdependent on power generation and to avoid similar incidents on a larger and more dangerous scale, there must be a warning system that points at a potential problem and suggests a course of action to take corrective measures before it's too late.
A Maltese company, Advanced Industrial Systems Ltd (AIS), is currently working on a piece of software that will do just that and hopefully, if implemented on a commercial basis, reduce the risk of major blackouts in Europe.
The reasoning behind it is that extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has pervaded other infrastructures, rendering them more intelligent, increasingly interconnected, complex, interdependent, and therefore more vulnerable.
AIS is the Maltese partner in a consortium of 15 European partners participating in an EU-funded FP6 project named "Integrated Risk Reduction of Information-based Infrastructure Systems" or "IRRIIS". Launched in 2006, the aim of the project is to enhance substantially the dependability of large complex critical infrastructure such as water provision, electricity generation, telecommunications, gas provision and transport.
The list of partners, ranging from academia over technical consultancy and service providers to key stakeholders from the fields of energy supply and telecommunication, is impressive and includes top names such as Siemens, Telecom Italia, Alcatel Lucent, Fraunhofer Institute, IABG and City University of London.
"This project wants to try and understand this relationship between utilities and come up with tools and techniques to tackle potential problems before they develop into a real problem," explained Mario Schembri, managing director of AIS explained to i-Tech.
AIS is experienced in the gathering and processing of information in utility companies. In recent years it has implemented the SCADA software system at the Water Services Corporation to reduce losses and provide better storage.
"Our experience with SCADA on how to link a system with the real world and transfer real information into IT systems is proving invaluable in IRRIIS," added Mr Schembri.
The initial idea of IRRIIS was to investigate the relationship between all utilities but eventually the project was re-dimensioned and focused on electricity generation and telecommunications. On the other hand, the role of AIS in the project increased and the Maltese company found itself developing software that links different software used in electricity production and telecommunications and monitor their performance, thus setting-off alarms and procedures to contain a potential problem.
AIS have written the code of this software from scratch and are providing the tools for its integration with middleware-improved technology (MIT) that provides risk assessment and decision support. It is working closely with the Fraunhofer Institute which is creating SimCIP, the simulation environment for testing.
"Integration of power and communication networks and globalisation bring the need of MIT. There are 20 minutes to contain a problem and this is the point of no return. Afterwards it's useless to take corrective measures. The damage is done," warned Mr Schembri.
The software developed by AIS is now in its demonstration stage and was presented to the other partners of the project earlier this month. It should be ready in September this year but it will be regarded as a research and not a commercial tool.
Though there is no definite reassurance that it will be adopted, 2015 has been picked as the possible date for commercial launch.
The deregulation of the energy market in Europe is giving new possibilities to consumers to buy energy from wherever they want. Now this is happening at international level and Malta is expected to be connected to the European grid and get energy from Italy, which in turn gets it from other sources.
This creates bottlenecks and stress on the networks, so MIT can help monitor the situation and take corrective measures before a problem escalates and could even affect Malta.
http://www.irriis.org
Then, suddenly, sometime after 3 a.m., there was an unexpected downpour and a few minutes later there was a total power blackout. It was not just Rome in total darkness. It was the whole of Italy, except for Sardinia, and parts of Austria and Croatia. By 9 a.m. northern Italy had power again but the authorities were trying hard to explain the cause of the worst blackout in over 20 years.
It seems it was not Italy's fault. Fingers were pointed at France, which generates 20 per cent of Italy's needs, and which was using both the main and back-up lines to deliver electricity. And the storm over Switzerland that caused a short circuit was also mentioned. Italy's national grid lost control of power flowing through the system for no more than four seconds, but it was enough to trigger a domino effect through the country.
What's the moral of the story? European countries have become interdependent on power generation and to avoid similar incidents on a larger and more dangerous scale, there must be a warning system that points at a potential problem and suggests a course of action to take corrective measures before it's too late.
A Maltese company, Advanced Industrial Systems Ltd (AIS), is currently working on a piece of software that will do just that and hopefully, if implemented on a commercial basis, reduce the risk of major blackouts in Europe.
The reasoning behind it is that extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has pervaded other infrastructures, rendering them more intelligent, increasingly interconnected, complex, interdependent, and therefore more vulnerable.
AIS is the Maltese partner in a consortium of 15 European partners participating in an EU-funded FP6 project named "Integrated Risk Reduction of Information-based Infrastructure Systems" or "IRRIIS". Launched in 2006, the aim of the project is to enhance substantially the dependability of large complex critical infrastructure such as water provision, electricity generation, telecommunications, gas provision and transport.
The list of partners, ranging from academia over technical consultancy and service providers to key stakeholders from the fields of energy supply and telecommunication, is impressive and includes top names such as Siemens, Telecom Italia, Alcatel Lucent, Fraunhofer Institute, IABG and City University of London.
"This project wants to try and understand this relationship between utilities and come up with tools and techniques to tackle potential problems before they develop into a real problem," explained Mario Schembri, managing director of AIS explained to i-Tech.
AIS is experienced in the gathering and processing of information in utility companies. In recent years it has implemented the SCADA software system at the Water Services Corporation to reduce losses and provide better storage.
"Our experience with SCADA on how to link a system with the real world and transfer real information into IT systems is proving invaluable in IRRIIS," added Mr Schembri.
The initial idea of IRRIIS was to investigate the relationship between all utilities but eventually the project was re-dimensioned and focused on electricity generation and telecommunications. On the other hand, the role of AIS in the project increased and the Maltese company found itself developing software that links different software used in electricity production and telecommunications and monitor their performance, thus setting-off alarms and procedures to contain a potential problem.
AIS have written the code of this software from scratch and are providing the tools for its integration with middleware-improved technology (MIT) that provides risk assessment and decision support. It is working closely with the Fraunhofer Institute which is creating SimCIP, the simulation environment for testing.
"Integration of power and communication networks and globalisation bring the need of MIT. There are 20 minutes to contain a problem and this is the point of no return. Afterwards it's useless to take corrective measures. The damage is done," warned Mr Schembri.
The software developed by AIS is now in its demonstration stage and was presented to the other partners of the project earlier this month. It should be ready in September this year but it will be regarded as a research and not a commercial tool.
Though there is no definite reassurance that it will be adopted, 2015 has been picked as the possible date for commercial launch.
The deregulation of the energy market in Europe is giving new possibilities to consumers to buy energy from wherever they want. Now this is happening at international level and Malta is expected to be connected to the European grid and get energy from Italy, which in turn gets it from other sources.
This creates bottlenecks and stress on the networks, so MIT can help monitor the situation and take corrective measures before a problem escalates and could even affect Malta.
http://www.irriis.org