Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Drone Intrusions
The post Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Drone Intrusions appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Drones represent a classic good news/bad news scenario. The good news is great. The bad news is terrifying.
On the good news front, drones can keep utility-sector workers safely on the ground, with the machines performing aerial inspections at a fraction of what it would cost to do with manned aircraft. They provide faster, easier inspection of boilers, stacks, towers, and other infrastructure.
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1. Drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—are often used to conduct inspections and collect data from power generation sites, and transmission and distribution assets. But they also can pose a security risk with their ability to intrude upon areas humans are not able to access. Courtesy: S. Hermann and F. Richter / Pixabay |
The bad news? Drones (Figure 1) represent an enormous threat across the energy sector—from production to distribution.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notes: “There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”…