Cloud Security for Energy Systems

As the grid becomes more integrated with cloud infrastructure and cloud-based technologies, NREL is developing and evaluating security approaches to ensure that energy systems can fully realize the benefits of cloud adoption while managing cyber risks.

Commercial cloud services are a growing area of interest for energy systems monitoring and management. Reduced operating costs, faster recovery, improved efficiency, better data management, and increased reliability and availability are all benefits cloud services can offer. But like any integrated system, the security of these cloud-based systems should be carefully considered as an intrinsic design principle.

With the ability to model city-scale electric utilities with thousands of devices using live connections to cloud components, NREL is evaluating the secure management of complex energy systems from the cloud to enhance the functionality and integration of these next-generation technologies.

Capabilities

We're answering questions such as:

• What vulnerabilities are introduced by the increased use of cloud services?
• Can data be secured in a way that meets industry standards?
• How can malicious actors leverage or pivot through vulnerable cloud infrastructure?
• What impacts can threat actors achieve by exploiting cloud-based vulnerabilities?
• How can we demonstrate the real-world consequences of these attacks on the grid?
• What security tools can be used to harden cloud-based systems?

Publications

CloudZero Phase 2 Technical Report, NREL Technical Report (2024)

NREL Project CloudZero, NREL Fact Sheet (2023)

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