Remote monitoring, SCADA and data security in modern wind energy projects

The days when wind turbines were purely mechanical machines for energy generation are long gone. Today, new projects rely on systems with high-tech capabilities. This ensures greater efficiency, more safety and improved cost-effectiveness. To ensure that all this succeeds, modern wind turbines are digital and highly networked. However, this also brings with it new challenges and responsibility. Finally, where data is collected and exchanged via networks, sufficient data protection must also be ensured.

In a wind turbine, safety must be ensured at all levels. Be it access via the monitoring of the machines and the entire site or the maintenance of the technology so that the system runs without problems. In the case of modern and digitized systems, however, data protection is also a central prerequisite, without which the operation of the system alone becomes legally impossible. Large wind farms are critical infrastructure, which means that their data security receives special attention.

There are strict and precisely defined requirements for data protection, which apply throughout the EU. In order to ensure data security and to be able to coordinate the associated mechanisms in the best possible way, information security management systems, so-called ISMS, can help. For these systems, there is a globally recognized standard that guarantees the efficiency and safety of these systems – the ISO27001. This certification proves to authorities, insurers and investors that data integrity and protection against failures are a very high priority.

One of the most important technical systems that is used for new wind energy projects runs under the acronym SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). It is a comprehensive system that uses various data points to perform meaningful analyses in real time. All this can be done in real time and the control is carried out remotely from a control center and can make specific optimizations to the workflow of individual systems. In this way, energy production and supply can be optimized and downtimes can be reduced. This leads to higher profitability in the long term and ensures the competitiveness of wind farm operators in a constantly changing energy market.

It is systems such as SCADA that make data security at wind farms such a sensitive issue. As part of the critical infrastructure, it would be downright catastrophic if hackers managed to connect to the SCADA network. This would not only jeopardize the operation of individual turbines, but also paralyze entire wind farms or even the entire power grid of a region. The operators of the wind farms must therefore prevent this at all costs. Conventional firewalls are not enough.

The term remote monitoring is actually very broad. In essence, it simply refers to the fact that something can be observed or controlled from a distance. This also applies when it comes to remote monitoring of wind turbines. In principle, the concept is similar to that of SCADA, except that it is limited to the collection and observation of data remotely, while SCADA enables comprehensive data collection and monitoring, but also control from a distance. It can therefore be said that every SCADA system contains some form of remote monitoring. At the same time, not every remote monitoring system is a full-fledged SCADA system.

Since wind farms are no longer operated purely mechanically, but with the help of digital data collection and remote control, efficiency has been significantly increased and operating expenses and wear and tear have been reduced. However, the data that is collected and processed in real time is also highly sensitive and must not fall into the wrong hands. In case of doubt, not only the profit of the operating company depends on this, but in the worst case the power supply of a region. Only by perfectly harmonizing remote monitoring systems such as SCADA and cyber security can the strict requirements of the data protection guidelines be met and the wind farm can be operated legally.