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Energy efficiency alternatives are nowadays on everyone’s lips given the energy crisis that is plaguing the vast majority of European regions. In Spain, the energetic companies are following alternatives based on the use of different technologies to solve problems as complex as such as the management of surplus energy in some infrastructures. One of the alternatives that seems to have greater depth within the sector is the use of Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This new concept of energy management makes it possible to interweave different energy sources into a single flow of electricity demand, managed through a global solution that is usually deployed in the cloud due to the amount of data that has to be processed. The management system proposed by Virtual Power Plant is simple: Take advantage of surplus energy from microgrids to balance supplies to infrastructures that need this energy. With this gesture, large distributors can take advantage of up to almost 100% of the power within all infrastructures, such as electric vehicle chargers, solar farms, wind turbine farms, etc.

The proliferation of cybersecurity incidents in industrial environments has given rise to a huge concern in the various existing sectors. Some of them, such us the energy sector, are choosing the path taking in the banking sector with the TIBER-EU framework. In addition, many governments are allocating large sums of money to their government agencies to develop strategic plans in which that exercises are included

In the year 2022 and as is reflected in the article “Industrial Security 2022 in numbers”, cyberattacks in all industrial sectors have increased by around 30 % in the third quarter of 2022 and it is estimated that the number of organizations or industrial manufacturers victims of a cyberattack was around 40% in the last year. Especially in the industrial sector, the number of attacks has grown exponentially due to the massive introduction of IoT devices (it is expected to go from 13.5 to 21.5 million connected devices in three years) or more specifically about IIoT devices, which have been the main gateway for attacks as manufacturers have prioritized features and mass-production of devices over the security. In addition, this is compounded by planned obsolescence planned (increasingly present in this type of devices), increased interoperability and connectivity and the appearance of new types of malware and exploits which are much more effective.

After the establishment of the cloud technology in industrial environments to provide processes a greater intelligence, new technological challenges arise that give rise to technical implementation solutions such as edge computing. This strategy makes it possible to extend cloud environments to different locations for processing collected data from the environment locally and immediately. An example of this new technological paradigm can be seen in modern manufacturing plants where sensors (IIoT) generate a constant flow of data to prevent breakdowns, improve operations, etc. Given that amount of data that can be generated, it is faster and more profitable to process the data in a close position from the equipment rather than transmitting It to a remote data center.