Researchers say the new attack could tear down the European electricity grid

Even more impressive, they could use the language to send telegrams to FRE that control real electrical systems in their laboratory, the same types that are connected to the real radio control system. The following video shows that researchers who prevent a real 40 kWP real -feed on the network for a real photovoltaic system.

To facilitate, they used a Flipper Zero device that they had configured to send the appropriate telegram to the photovoltaic system. They did this after discovering that Flipper Zero RFID The reading mode could be used to send modulated signals with the frequency change key to the receivers at a distance of one meter.

With the confidence that an attacker could send unauthorized radio control telegrams that instructed real electrical systems connected to the network, the researchers asked themselves: what is the maximum amount of damage that a malicious actor, probably one who works for a nation, could it inflict?

The researchers surveyed the grid to measure the energy capacity that the small and medium -sized renewable facilities could feed the network. They reached the estimate of 40 GW. Combined with the 20 GW of load that they can add theoretically, which were equivalent to an unbalanced capacity of 60 GW, enough to feed all over Germany. They settled that a sudden change that added or abandoned that amount of electricity from the network immediately, all at the same time could create enough instability to eliminate it completely.

Like the dominoa chips falling

In a published summary of the presentation last month, the researchers explained their thoughts behind the estimate:

To understand, we must look at the frequency of the grid. Is 50 HertzAnd you must always stay there.

• If it arrives 50.2 Hertz or moreInterventions are activated to reduce supply. For example, using the technology we are discussing today to turn off the solar parks.
• If the frequency falls below 49.8 HertzOther interventions are produced, such as activating energy reserves or disconnecting industries that have contractually agreed that this happens. In addition, the first hardware fails like this It happened at Vienna airport.
• If the frequency reaches 49 Hz or lessThe detachment of automated step by step begins, up to 50% at 48.5 Hz. That may sound a bit technical and sober, but what it means to the European network is more than 200 million people without power.
• At 47.5 HzThe power plants are disconnected from the network to protect themselves from damage. At that time, the grid needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

In theory, With a completely charged grid in 300 GWcreating a Change of 1 Hz To reach this private cargo elimination threshold requires 18 GW imbalance. However, such a large imbalance, although not even that massive compared to the estimate of 60 GW, has never been seen.

In practice, One of the most recent incidents was in 2021, when approximately 3 GW They were power unexpectedly lost in Polandcausing the frequency of the grid fall by 0.16 Hertz. What this demonstrates is that the grid has not yet faced such a significant imbalance.

But if we begin to talk about imbalances of 18 GW, or 60 GW, or even more when considering other countries, there is an additional problem in addition to the theoretical effect on the frequency of the network. That problem is Power transfer.

If a significant amount of energy in a region is missing, it must be transferred there through electricity lines that could be overload. These lines could go out to avoid damage, which could overload other lines, causing them to turn off too.

Such domino effect, or waterfall–It happened in 2006When an electric line was closed to accommodate a cruise transport. The planning was not thorough and followed a waterfall. Then, the theoretical limits of the network do not completely capture the potential for much greater interruptions.

Given all that, it is clear that there is enough energy under radio control to cause serious problems.

Send malicious telegrams to select fresh

There are enough obstacles to cause such a challenging catastrophic interruption in the best of cases (evaluation of Bräunlein and Melette) or doubtful by unlikely (the evaluation of an expert in the external network). The researchers noticed three key requirements for such an attack.