Active in 10+ countries worldwide
Energizing 30+ companies

With rapid growth of batteries, risk of cyber attack also increases

Published on Thursday 02 January 2025 by Nieuwsuur

From the home battery to battery systems at wind farms, the number of batteries in the Netherlands has been increasing exponentially in recent years. But with the increase in the number of batteries, the vulnerability to an attack on the power grid is also growing.

While our country had hardly any batteries in 2020, over 40,000 were in use last year. Nevertheless, compared to solar panels, for example, batteries are still a small part of our energy system today.

But with a power grid that is rapidly electrifying, storing energy is becoming increasingly important. In the next few years, batteries should account for at least a fifth of that storage.

If I were to order the battery to charge at the wrong time, I could disrupt the power supply of an entire neighbourhood here. Tijn Swinkels, CEO battery manufacturer DENS

Like many solar panels, batteries these days are ‘smart’: they are connected to the internet so that the manufacturer can collect data on the battery’s performance and lifetime. This improves battery performance, but also makes them vulnerable to hackers and to malicious manufacturers.

And by remotely instructing large batteries to charge at a time when the grid is already at maximum power demand, this could cause local or even regional power cuts.

Chain reaction

Peter Palensky, professor of smart grids at TU Delft, sees that a smarter electricity grid is also a more vulnerable grid. ‘A disruption via a battery or large group of solar panels can cause a chain reaction. The vulnerability lies mainly in how you fit the battery into the energy system, and the safety measures you take or don’t take.’

He does point out that batteries in the Netherlands are currently small in scale. A hacking attack or manufacturer interference could only have a local impact now. ‘In five or 10 years that will be different, then that impact could be regional or national. That makes it important that we regulate this properly.’

Chinese manufacturers dominate the global battery market and that worries the US government. The latter investigated the cyber security of batteries and last year decided to remove Chinese-made batteries from defence complexes and other critical infrastructure. But Europe is actually stepping up cooperation with Chinese battery giants.

Tijn Swinkels, CEO of Helmond-based Dutch battery manufacturer DENS, understands US concerns. He himself has several large battery projects in the Netherlands. ‘We too have access to those systems, including here in Helmond. If I were to order the battery to charge at the wrong time, I could disrupt the power supply of an entire neighbourhood here.’

Swinkels is particularly concerned about batteries from foreign manufacturers, from countries with whom geopolitical tensions are rising. Rather, he would rather see the European Union further boost its own battery production. Whether that is preaching to its own parish? Not according to Swinkels: ‘We already have the wind at our backs, our sales have grown by more than 1,000 per cent in recent years.’

The energy storage industry association, Energy Storage NL, also says they ‘share the concerns about the vulnerability of battery systems with regard to cyber security’. The industry association argues that within the Netherlands and Europe, ‘we should focus on an alternative battery industry’.

New guidelines

For now, this topic is low on the Dutch policy agenda. Cyber security does not feature at all in the Dutch battery strategy, which was updated as recently as December. This while the European Union recently adopted cybersecurity directives that the Netherlands will have to implement.

Energy Storage NL advises the Dutch government not to delay proper legislation and regulation any longer. ‘We therefore still call on the Dutch government to implement and also enforce the [European] regulations as soon as possible.’

In response, the National Digital Infrastructure Inspectorate said it endorsed the vulnerability of batteries, but said it was ‘risk-oriented’ and also pointed to the small share batteries currently have in our energy system. Next summer, when new European legislation comes into force, the inspectorate will extend supervision to batteries.

Want to know more?

Read more on nos.nl
Watch the Nieuwsuur item via npo.nl/nieuwsuur

Would you like to discover for yourself what DENS can do for you? Feel free to contact us.