ABB Partners Engie for Belgian Power Cyber Security

Engie is a global energy, power and services group with a strategic presence in around 20 key countries. As leading operators of critical power infrastructure, they are acutely aware that today’s cyber security challenges are rapidly evolving, and that tomorrow’s threats will likely be even more complex.

To proactively address these risks and protect the CHP plants they operate in collaboration with industrial partners, Engie has recently begun enhancing the cyber security resilience of all their CHP assets. The objective is to meet the most important industrial cyber security standards for securing industrial automation systems and to safeguard them against cyber threats both now and in the future.

Comprehensive care agreement with continuous updates
Based on its proven track record and deep domain expertise in industrial cyber security, ABB was selected by Engie to undertake cyber security upgrades at several of its CHP plants in Belgium. As part of the ABB Care agreement, ABB supplied a comprehensive Cyber Security Workplace solution, covering system upgrades, patch management, maintenance and backup systems. These services are designed to be continuously maintained and updated, building upon ABB’s progressive “Three Stages of Cyber Security” approach: Assess, Implement and Sustain.

The project not only ensures immediate compliance with the NIS1 and other regulations but also lays the groundwork for meeting NIS2 requirements. The ABB Care contract includes licenses and services that ensure ongoing protection and lifecycle support for automation systems, with implementation taking place during 2025. The contract also comprises a post-delivery audit by a third-party as well as FAT and SAT testing involving multiple stakeholders.

Close cooperation gives the plant deeper cyber security insight
Dries van Laerhoven, Digital Solutions Architect at ABB, explains the highlights of the Engie project. “Through our close teamwork, Engie and ABB have found a smart way to augment cyber security at Engie’s CHP sites in a pragmatic and effective way. We have placed extensive focus on the cyber security FAT and SAT acceptance tests, with the result being that the security of the sites is guaranteed. And, simultaneously, the technology is much more transparent for the customer.”

Based on this approach, says Dries, Engie gets much deeper insight into how they are doing with cyber security actions. This gives them both greater resilience against unexpected threats/cyber incidents as well as proactive suggestions for improvement. This results in the highest effectiveness of the cyber security controls at the CHP plants, as intended and required by the NIS2 Directive.

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