Security of infrastructure (physical and cyberattacks)

GRI 103 Management approach (103-1, 103-2, 103-3)

Relevance 

The power supply is part of the critical infrastructure (CI). As a leading European electricity producer and operator of major nuclear, gas and hydropower plants, Alpiq is part of the CI. Critical infrastructure safeguards the supply of essential goods and services, such as energy, transport or communications. The overarching goal of critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is to guarantee as far as possible the continuous functioning of critical infrastructure, or minimum operation (continuity management) and a return to a normal state following an incident.

Management approach

For critical infrastructure protection, the primary focus is on all of the fundamental processes and plants that are essential to securing the safe, reliable and efficient power supply. This includes the safe operation of the power plants and grids, system coordination, grid regulation, the black start and isolated operation capabilities of producers, voltage stability, etc.

The companies are directly responsible for safeguarding the nuclear power plants. The concept of safeguarding is supervised by ENSI, which checks it periodically for its effectiveness.

Assessment

The systems fall under different classifications and are subject to different requirements depending on their relevance – the higher the classification, the more stringent the requirements.

The safety of the nuclear power plants is continuously monitored. This also includes emergency protection and planning (see guideline ENSI-B12). In addition, regular emergency exercises take place in which the materials, personnel and organisation are tested in the context of an emergency. These emergency exercises are subject to minimum requirements that are defined in guideline ENSI-B11. Large-scale emergency exercises, i.e. comprehensive emergency exercises that include cantonal services and federal authorities, generally take place every two years at one of the nuclear power plant sites. The last such exercise took place in 2019 at Beznau nuclear power plant. The next comprehensive emergency exercise will therefore take place in 2021.