Review of an industrially implemented model of zoning principles for electricity distribution and energy production

Abstract: The interconnection of components of industrial automation and control systems (IACS) and enterprise systems involved in processes ranging from generation and transmission to billing within electric utilities poses challenges regarding cyber security as well as division of organisational responsibility. One means of organising these components and systems is to use a zone model in which they are segmented, offering layered defences as well as a logical grouping. One such zone model is the zone model under review, which was presented by Zerbst et al. in a CIRED paper from 2009. This master thesis reviews that zone model and compares it to other industry standard zone models which have been found to be able to be categorised into either functional based models or layered defence models. The outcome is a rough definition of what kind of content fits in the various zones of the reviewed model, as well as a normalised zone model to be used for comparison. A suggested method for dividing system components into zones is based on the 4R-method considering the response time, resolution, reliability and reparability of the system component, although its accuracy has not been empirically tested.