The safety of our utility grid is in the news these days and with good reason. Few people have had to endure wide-spread outages of electricity or any other utility that we depend on daily. The inconvenience of doing without them for a few hours or days, is typically all most Americans have had to deal with. During those times, however, we get a clear sense of our dependence on them and sigh a sigh of relief when they return. The disruption on a mass scale of these utilities for any significant period of time would have disastrous consequences. As utility companies become aware of this potential, they are beginning to take the steps they need to take to secure these critical infrastructure components.
As we have learned from many industries, security is something that must be “designed in” from the first conception and planning of a project. Security is not something that can effectively or cost-efficiently be “added on” at the end. If security is not thought of, rigorously, from inception, then the odds of a project being able to be fully secured are remote. This is nowhere more true than the design and engineering of utility systems.
A comprehensive approach to project management, design, engineering and roll-out are essential to fully-secured, operational system. Some of the considerations to made revolve around management of the project itself. Solid assessment and gathering of detailed requirements with client input is critical. Establishing good lines of communication between the stakeholders of the system and the project management team (typically external consultants and internal subject matter experts) is crucial.
If it develops that the existing marketplace products do not meet the need of a particularly sensitive facility or system, then the ability to custom fabricate a custom solution becomes key. This attention to detail must carry through the entire security project, through monitoring of the system and post-installation security assessments. Integration of the hardware and network solution is necessary to ensure that a complete overview is provided at all times of the more vulnerable aspects of an utility system.
If you are a utility company who is looking for a comprehensive security system, designed for your particular environment and your particular vulnerabilities, contact Unlimited Technology, a leading provider of Utility Company Security Systems, (http://www.website.com). They have deep experience in the design, engineering, installation, monitoring and project management of utility company security.
