Energy infrastructure cannot be fully protected against external threats such as malicious drone attacks, E.ON CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said on Wednesday, warning of growing risks to critical networks.
Birnbaum made the comments in Germany after E.ON, Europe’s biggest energy grid operator, presented its first-half results, highlighting the difficulty of securing infrastructure spread across the country.
His remarks came a week after an explosive-laden drone was found near a runway at Leipzig/Halle Airport, raising concerns over the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to potential attacks.
Birnbaum said that if Germany was struggling to secure even its major airports, it would be unrealistic to expect complete protection for E.ON’s hundreds of distribution network sites.
He said E.ON was taking several measures to strengthen the security of its infrastructure, but acknowledged that rapid advances in drone technology were making the threat increasingly difficult to manage.
“Complete protection is illusory,” Birnbaum said, stressing that E.ON could make its infrastructure harder to attack but could not guarantee that an attack would be impossible.
The comments underscore wider concerns in Europe about the vulnerability of energy networks and other critical infrastructure to drones and other forms of external disruption.
Birnbaum said the company therefore had to focus not only on preventing attacks but also on ensuring it could respond effectively if an incident occurred.
E.ON’s priority, he said, was to ensure that electricity supplies could be restored quickly following any successful attack on its infrastructure.
The warning comes as European authorities and energy operators face growing pressure to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure against emerging security threats.