Let Us Prepare for Cyberattacks






The accelerated advance in information and communication technologies in the modern world that has driven the interconnectivity of the world —from people to markets— and has greatly facilitated communication, real-time monitoring and automation, also has its risks.

In the last five years, according to the Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum, cyberattacks, data theft and electronic fraud have become a risk with a high probability of occurrence and no industry, including the energy industry, is safe.

Perhaps you remember, in 2019 Pemex suffered a cyberattack called ransomware, which basically is a play on words to say something like kidnapping or ransom app. The fact is that a group of hackers found a vulnerability in Pemex’s outgoing connections; those digital ports that equipment uses to connect to YouTube, Netflix or even the internet.

Well then, once access to the company’s internal network was gained, the malicious software began to do its job: encrypt all the files in the company’s internal cloud. That is, it established a lock on the file system and they can only be unlocked with a complex string. All the files. From emails to official documents and databases.

It is estimated that the ransom requested from Pemex was close to 5 million dollars in cryptocurrencies, which makes it very difficult to track the perpetrators. However, according to statements from Mexico’s oil company, the ransom was not paid and some systems took several months to be completely restored.

Cyberattacks Recently Affected the Price of Gasoline in the United States

A couple of weeks ago another company, now in the United States, that operates the main refined-products transport pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico to the East Coast of the country, was attacked. The Colonial pipeline is made up of almost 9,000 kilometers in length and transports 2.5 million barrels per day. As a result of the cyberattack, the pipeline lasted five days out of service.

This put gasoline prices in the United States in trouble, which registered their most important increase since 2014, when the international fall in oil prices began. Some news sites even reported panic buying by American motorists who filled gallons, water tanks and even plastic bags.

At first, Colonial decided not to pay the ransom; however, due to these pressures the company gave in and ended up paying around 5 million dollars. The same amount that was requested from Pemex at the beginning.

If we consider what was indicated by the World Economic Forum, this type of risk will become more common every day and the ransoms higher every day. Companies allocate a large part of their income to increase their cybersecurity and hackers will dedicate more and more resources to maintaining attacks because they constitute an opportunity to make good money.

A solution that companies such as Google, Sony or Microsoft have implemented is to create reward programs for hackers who use the platform to report vulnerabilities in the security of their systems in exchange for a payment. With this, companies get ahead and can block latent failures. This is putting the community to work with a common objective.

In Mexico, in the energy sector, it would be necessary to ask about the state of the security of Cenace, Cenagas; CFE or Pemex itself, because an attack like these could happen again at any moment. Even in our homes: can you imagine someone hacking Alexa or putting your computer to mine bitcoin? Or, in the future, can you imagine someone hacking the robot that delivers pizzas?

Without a doubt, this is one of the risks of a future interconnected in real time throughout the globe.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: May 18, 2021
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/preparemonos-ciberataques-industria-electrica-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210619041707/https://businessinsider.mx/preparemonos-ciberataques-industria-electrica-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [Archived]

Hydroelectric Plants in Times of Drought






The president of Mexico has pointed out on multiple occasions that one of the pillars of his administration to achieve clean energy goals is the generation of electricity through hydroelectric plants. This plan is so important that on multiple occasions he has pointed out that with investment and repowering of current facilities we can generate the clean energy that the country needs without promoting renewable sources such as solar and wind, because he considers them intermittent.

According to the president and his trusted advisors, solar and wind generation are intermittent because they do not generate electricity when there is no sun and when there is no wind; as if the sunrise, the movement of clouds and air currents were unpredictable and spontaneous and there did not exist prediction algorithms with 90% probability that allow having an important degree of certainty of generation.

There are two reasons why this administration has promoted hydroelectric generation, the first because most hydroelectric plants belong to CFE and that implies that the State company is being strengthened while at the same time barriers to entry are established for private competitors.

To such a degree that one of the fundamental changes in the reform of the Electric Industry Law that is suspended with general effects is that hydroelectric plants will be the first to be dispatched. This favors CFE and displaces private generators, although other private ones benefit: Generadora Fenix.

Generadora Fenix is a consortium formed by a Portuguese company and a company created by a group from the extinct Luz y Fuerza del Centro union, to whom the State transferred ownership of some hydroelectric plants for their operation in the wholesale electricity market. Well, they would be favored.

The other reason that the present administration mentions is that hydroelectric plants have controllable electricity production, all else remaining constant, energy can be generated as a constant flow if there is a constant flow of electricity. But here lies the most important error of the strategy: water, although it is a renewable resource, is finite, exhaustible, and takes time to recover.

Not only that, water has other uses; it does not only serve to generate electricity. As obvious as this may seem, sometimes it seems that the leaders of the national electric company miss it. The water in dams serves so that farm workers can irrigate their lands, so that water systems provide water to our homes, so that companies produce food, clothing and other essential products, and so that ecosystems have the vital liquid.

Water management is an issue that requires long-term projection because unexpected climatological issues can occur, such as droughts; therefore, electricity generation from dams is a byproduct that is optimized considering all the other consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water and considering the projections and risks of adverse climatological events that could reduce the replacement rate of water.

If you only release the water because CFE generation must be favored, we all have a problem and a human right elevated to constitutional rank is affected: the right to water that we Mexicans have as a society. Having said this, the president’s strategy, increasing clean energy generation with hydroelectric plants, is tied from the beginning to the availability of enough water to meet the needs of citizens today and in the future.

Today we are suffering one of the most serious droughts in our country; water must be cared for and its other uses must be considered. As laudable as the task of rescuing CFE may be, this is not the priority. In such a way that this 2021 the entire clean electricity generation plan of the current administration is dead letter thanks to the drought.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: May 11, 2021
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/hidroelectricas-mexico-sequia-opinion-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324022817/https://businessinsider.mx/hidroelectricas-mexico-sequia-opinion-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [Archived]

The Other Solar Energy






We anticipated last week that when we talk about solar energy, photovoltaic comes to mind, that is, electric energy generated with panels. But solar energy goes far beyond photovoltaic; there is also great thermal potential that is used to heat spaces, to heat hygienic water and in industrial processes.

It is also possible to generate electric energy with the sun using concentrated solar thermal technology. This operates in a similar way to the other primary sources of electricity; —in fact, it is photovoltaic solar that really uses a different principle—.

How does concentrated solar thermal energy work?

Almost all power plants produce electricity with one principle. This consists of the movement of a turbine connected to an electromagnetic generator that generates electricity. Or, said in another way, it generates electricity that can be used directly or transformed and conducted through transmission networks. This works the same for hydroelectric, wind and thermal plants.

Photovoltaic solar energy works differently. In a very reductionist way, solar panels generate electric current through photons that allow an electron to move between layers of silicon. The important thing, for today, is that in solar panels there is no steam nor turbine nor generator, only a direct current.

In contrast, concentrated solar thermal technology uses the same principle as thermal plants: converting water into steam to move a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. For this, thousands of mirrors are used to reflect and concentrate sunlight at the tip of a tower that functions as a heat exchanger using molten salt as a vehicle.

Concentrated solar energy increases the temperature of the molten salt, which is in turn used to generate the water steam that will move the turbine to produce electricity. In the process, the molten salt loses thermal energy and recirculates through the heat exchanger to repeat the process. In this process lies the great difference, strength and weakness, of concentrated solar thermal energy compared with photovoltaic solar energy.

Its strength, compared with photovoltaic energy, is that concentrated solar thermal energy can be stored; since molten salt with high temperature can retain heat between 10 and 16 hours. Consequently, it can be used when there is no solar irradiation, which allows generating continuous electricity without variability and at hours without sunlight.

However, its disadvantage is that it is still a technology with higher development, operation and maintenance costs than photovoltaic solar. Therefore, its progress has not followed the same logic as its photovoltaic sister. So, when you hear about solar energy, remember that there are other ways to use it and achieve decarbonization in the future.

This article was originally published by Business Insider México.
Date: April 27, 2021
Original Link: https://businessinsider.mx/energia-solar-opinion-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [offline]
Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20220810231024/https://businessinsider.mx/energia-solar-opinion-energia-circular-paul-alejandro-sanchez/ [Archived]