Project Highlight
Thales and SEL Collaborate on Landmark Smart Grid Laboratory
Thales is a worldwide leader in advanced digital technologies. Their National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC) facility in Ebbw Vale is a hub of innovation and collaboration in the field of cybersecurity and digital technologies that helps ensure the safety of the nation’s critical national infrastructure (CNI).
Challenge
The United Kingdom’s CNI owners require reliable and resilient electricity to carry out their critical missions. As cybersecurity threats increase within energy infrastructure, comprehensive and trustworthy supplies, products, and solutions are vital. A Thales and SEL collaboration fulfills a need for advanced cybersecurity training, research and development, attack simulations, and product demonstrations for CNI owners. The partnership showcases the combined portfolios of SEL operational technology (OT) software-defined networking (SDN) and Thales solutions for OT cybersecurity, including network and security operations centers, authentication, digital identity, and public key infrastructure.Solution
Together, Thales and SEL created the UK’s first smart grid cyber-physical laboratory: the Ebbw Vale Smart Grid Laboratory at the NDEC. The lab conducts testing and verification of cyber measures and provides maturity level assessments of specific network architectures used by CNI owners.The lab’s smart grid uses the latest cyber standards applied in electrical substations. Users train for real-world cyber attacks through simulations and exercises. During the launch, Thales and SEL ran several demonstrations for customers in the energy, transport, defense, security, aerospace, space, digital identity, and cybersecurity markets.Results
The Ebbw Vale Smart Grid Laboratory at the NDEC provides energy network CNI owners:- Cybersecurity training for utilities in areas including system hardening, vulnerability and risk assessments, OT SDN, and intrusion detection strategies.
- Simulations of realistic cyber attacks on OT environments, including station and process bus and time-synchronization attacks in digital substations.
- Research and development of new secure-by-design reference architectures and best practices, providing greater internal and external resiliency.
- Product demonstrations for stakeholders, featuring the smart grid concept, advanced OT cybersecurity solutions, and other innovations developed for the energy industry.
Customer ProfileCustomer: Owners of CNI assetsLocation: Global, with a focus on the United Kingdom and European Union regionsIndustries: Utilities, industrials, transportation, infrastructure, and large asset ownersApplication: OT SDN complemented by networking and security operations centers and authentication solutions