IT and Electrical Power Supply: Potentials and Risks of Coupling Regarding Vulnerability and Resilience

With the Energiewende Germany has to arrange a fundamental transformation of the energy system, which will be characterized by a high content of volatile renewable energies. The accompanying fluctuations of the energy supply need a wide range of flexibility to balance energy supply and demand. This need the increasing introduction of information and communications technology (ICT) in the energy supply system, resulting in a more complex and more vulnerable system with respect to failures and manipulations. On the other hand, increasing decentralization and granularity in the energy system can reduce its vulnerability to an extensive and long-lasting blackout and its fatal consequences. This new dimension will be analyzed by the concept of vulnerability and resilience in this project.