As utilities roll out smart grids, they will significantly increase their spending on cybersecurity through 2015, according to Pike Research.
Smart grids hold a lot of promise to manage power more efficiently and increased communications between the electric grid and the customer at the end of the line. The rub: These interconnected grids can be more vulnerable to attacks from terrorists and hackers.
According to Pike Research, no government, utility or infrastructure vendor wants to be viewed as the weak link in the smart grid chain. As a result of those fears, vendors specializing in smart grid cybersecurity revenue will see revenue jump from $1.2 billion in 2009 to $3.7 billion by 2015.
Between 2010 to 2015, Pike Research estimates that $21 billion will be spent on global smart grid cybersecurity deployments. Although it’s nice that there’s an increased focus on smart grid security there are still hurdles. Pike Research said:
Despite the increased emphasis, the lack of interoperable cyber security standards continues to be a major issue. Pike Research’s analysis indicates that many utilities are highly focused on finding end-to-end cyber security solutions across a variety of smart grid application areas and geographies, as cyber security is viewed as a cross-cutting feature of smart grid deployments. This need for end-to-end solutions has opened new market opportunities for systems integrators and framework developers to collaborate with traditional utility industry players, including metering and transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure vendors.
By category, Pike Research forecasts equipment protection and configuration management will garner the most spending. For smart grid applications, cybersecurity spending will focus on distribution automation, transmission upgrades and advanced metering.
Key industry players in the sector identified by Pike Research include: Accenture, BAE Systems, Boeing, Certicom, Cisco, Electric Power Research Institute, IBM, Idaho/Sandia National Labs, Industrial Defender, InGuardians, IOActive, Lockheed Martin, N-Dimension, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SAIC, Subnet Solutions, Waterfall Security and Wurldtech.
