华为逆变器都被殃及?可美国电力专家发话了

广告位招租

就像美国政府阻止华为进入美国电信网络一样，2月26日，美国11名议员提议美国国会采取行动，阻止华为逆变器进入美国的住宅和商业市场。对比，国外光伏专业媒体记者采访到相关人士，并将其看法予以记录。

背

景

2月26日新加坡《联合早报》报道，11名议员致信国土安全部部长科尔斯金·尼尔森(Kirstjen Nielsen)，呼吁她“考虑在美国禁止使用华为的逆变器”。

他们在信函中说：“无论是大型光伏系统，还是家庭、校区和企业使用的光伏系统，都很容易遭受网络攻击。我们的联邦政府应该考虑在美国禁止使用华为的逆变器。”但这11名议员并没有提供有关威胁性质的相关细节和证据。

据了解，华为进入美国电力市场相对较晚，但已开发出新一代低成本太阳能逆变器，可以转换、管理和监控家用太阳能电池板产生的能源。

你能用逆变器侵入电网吗？

可能吧。但用笔记本电脑上网更有可能侵入电网。而且，华为的逆变器并不能侵入电网。

我们不知道该如何看待这项提议中的禁令。

此前，美国政府由于担心华为的设备可用于间谍活动，阻止华为已被禁止进入其电信市场，尤其是在几个西方国家参与5G网络，但逆变器的作用与电信产品不同。

此外，立法机构的成员往往不善于跟上技术的发展，也不善于在这个领域做出良好的评估。

但这些参议员(其中多数来自共和党)的担忧是否可以归结为一个问题:一家逆变器制造商能否利用其产品对电网发起网络攻击，引起大面积停电甚至全网崩溃?

SUN2000L-5KTL-CN(4G)

国外光伏专业媒体联系了SunSpec联盟的主席Tom Tansy，请他提供意见，以帮助确定这种担忧是否有技术依据，还是偏执的排外言论。

1死亡逆变器

在使用逆变器侵入系统方面，最大的担忧是所有这些设备都可能同时关闭，导致全网停电。这与德国在2012年开始的“50.2 Hz问题”以及随后的大规模逆变器改造中所面临的危险类似，但主要集中在一家制造商潜在的恶性意图上。

Tansy指出，“远程控制逆变器是可能的，包括节流它的功率，或限制和掌控实际功率。如果你能控制一个逆变器，你就能控制很多。”

在2018年，太阳能只提供了美国2.4%的电力，而分布式太阳能(小于1兆瓦的电厂)只占不到三分之一，或者说占到所有电力的0.7%。尽管在如加利福尼亚的一些州中使用太阳能发电的比例会更高一些，在有些州我们正在部署将来使用更多的太阳能和风能发电，但在任何时候,任何逆变器制造商在整个电网系统上只占有一小部分。

即因此，即便一家为外国政府工作的逆变器制造商关闭了所有的逆变器，也很难产生重大影响。特别是针对分布式屋顶光伏,再怎么弄也无法有严重影响。

Tansy表示，如果一个外国政府或恐怖组织真的想摧毁电网，那么针对大型、集中式电站（如燃煤或核电站）将更加有效,而不是分布式太阳能发电。

2黑客电网

这就引出了我们的下一个问题:逆变器能否被用来破坏电网，摧毁一座大型发电厂?Tansy指出，世界电力系统都是网络化的，并没有排除这种威胁，但是环境是至关重要的。

Tansy告诉pv-magzine:“更有可能的情况是，与其用光伏电网作为载体，试图连接到到达核电站等关键设施，不如使用手持iPhone或笔记本电脑，或者通过公共互联网连接。”

他还表示，与配电网上的任何东西相比，在一个公用事业规模的电厂配套的逆变器上做到这一点要容易得多。配电网离核心发电设备相当远，而且是完全孤立的系统。

此外，理论上，黑客可以使一个大型发电厂离线，但这并不一定会导致停电。大型发电厂总是在没有任何预警的情况下停运，比如，在2018年1月的“炸弹旋风”(bomb cyclone)期间，马萨诸塞州清教徒核电站(Pilgrim nuclear power plant)被迫关闭。在这种情况下，就像在其他情况下一样，其他形式的发电被填充。

3网络安全

如果说电网易受网络攻击的关键是它的网络，那么这也是它的优势所在。

Tansy说，目前电网经常受到网络攻击，但到目前为止还没有造成大停电。“每天都有针对关键基础设施的攻击，“就像对银行系统的攻击每天24小时都在发生一样。”

事实上，Tansy指出，互联网是建立在美国军方发明的一种安全模式上。他解释说:“互联网的想法是建立一个分散的系统，建立一种机制，当你在网络的一小部分发生不利情况时，你可以检测到。”我认为，分布式能源具有同样的特点。如果发生了什么事，你可以把它隔离开来。

4正在进行的工作

这并不是说Tansy不关心网络安全，SunSpec联盟现在正持续关注华为这一事件，并与Sandia国家实验室、国家可再生能源实验室(NREL)还有其他国家实验室合作开展这一事件的相关工作。Tansy解释说:“这个行业正竭尽全力维护秩序。”

尽管他表明了对网络安全和电网存在国家安全方面的担忧，但他不赞成禁止特定公司作为解决方案的想法。“孤立一家公司的想法是愚蠢的，”Tansy说。“他们只是其中之一。那种认为我们可以孤立和包围华为，从而解决我们的问题的想法是天真的。

他还表示，尽管参议院情报委员会(Senate Intelligence Committee)试图禁止华为，但气候变化对我们国家的安全构成的威胁要大得多。许多参议员，尤其是共和党参议员，一直在积极否认这一威胁。

Tansy说:“让我们处理当下真正的紧急情况，不要混淆我们对政治和与中国贸易平衡的任何看法。”

以下是英文原文（https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/03/01/can-you-hack-the-grid-using-an-inverter/?from=groupmessage）：

Can you hack the grid using an inverter?

Maybe. But you’d be better off using a laptop. And no, Huawei inverters aren’t going to cause a blackout.

MARCH 1, 2019 CHRISTIAN ROSELUND

On Monday, 11 U.S. senators sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, calling on her to “consider a ban on the use of Huawei inverters in the United States”. These senators expressed concern over both large-scale PV plants and distributed, rooftop systems, without giving exact details regarding the nature of the threat posed.

We weren’t sure what to make of this proposed ban. Huawei has been blocked from the telecom market and specifically from participating in the 5G network in several Western nations over concerns that its equipment could be used for espionage, but inverters play a different role than telecommunications products. Furthermore, members of the legislative body that takes its name from the Latin for “old men” are often not the best at keeping up to date with technology (“series of tubes”, anyone?), and making good assessments in this realm.

But whether or not these senators – most of whom hail from the Republican Party – have a valid concern comes down to this question: could an inverter maker use its products to launch cyberattacks on the grid, or cause blackouts?

We contacted Tom Tansy, the chair of the SunSpec Alliance, and asked his opinion to help determine whether there is a technical basis for this concern, or whether this is paranoia and xenophobia talking.

The “kill switch”

The biggest concern in terms of using inverters to hack into systems involves the danger that all of these devices could all be shut down at once, causing blackouts. This is similar to the danger that was posed to Germany under the “50.2 Hz problem” and subsequent mass inverter retrofit starting in 2012, but focused on the potential for malignant intent by one manufacturer.

Tansy notes that it is possible to remotely control an inverter, including throttling its power, or limiting and steering real power. And if you could control one inverter, you could control a number of them.

Here it is important to remember that in 2018, solar only provided 2.4% of the electricity in the United States, with distributed solar (plants smaller than 1 MW), representing less than 1/3 of that, or 0.7% of all power. And although it is true that some states like California get a much higher share of their power from solar, and that we are planning for a future with a higher portion of solar and wind on the grid, any inverter maker has only a small part of the total systems online at any one time.

So even if one inverter maker, working on behalf of a foreign government, did shut off all of their inverters, it would be hard to have a big effect. This is particularly true if they were most active in rooftop solar markets.

Tansy says that if a foreign government or terrorist group did want to take down the grid, it would be much more effective to target large, centralized generators like coal or nuclear power plants, and not distributed solar.

Hacking the grid?

Which brings us to our next question: could inverters be used to hack the electric grid, and take down a big power plant? Tansy notes that the world’s power systems are all networked and didn’t rule out this threat, but again context is critical.

“The far more likely scenario, rather than using a solar system as your vector to try to get to a critical facility, like a nuclear power plant, would be to use your handheld iPhone or laptop or come over a common internet connection,” Tansy told pv magazine.

He also says that this would be much easier to do from an inverter accompanying a utility-scale plant than anything on the distribution grid, which is “pretty far away from the central generators, and physically isolated”.

Furthermore, if in a theoretical scenario a hacker could take a large power plant offline, this wouldn’t necessarily cause a blackout. Large power plants go offline without warning all the time, such as when the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts had to be take off during the January 2018 “bomb cyclone” storm. In this case as in others, other forms of generation filled in.

Networked security

If the key to the vulnerability of the grid to cyberattacks is its network, that is also its strength.

Tansy says that there are frequent cyberattacks on the grid now, and so far they haven’t caused any major blackouts. “Attacks are made against critical infrastructure every single day,” states Tansy. “Just like attacks on the banking system happen 24/7.”

In fact, Tansy points out that the internet was basically invented by the U.S. military as a security mechanism. “The idea of the internet was to make a decentralized system, and build in mechanisms such that you can detect when you have adverse conditions happening on one small part of the network,” he explains. “Distributed energy resources, I would argue, shares that same characteristic. If something happens, you can isolate it.”

Ongoing work

This is not to say that Tansy isn’t concerned about cybersecurity, and notes that the SunSpec Alliance is engaged in ongoing work on this topic, including in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and other national labs. “The industry is taking great pains to get its house in order,” explains Tansy.

And while he confirms that there are national security concerns around cybersecurity and the grid, he does not endorse the concept of banning specific companies as a solution. “The idea of isolating a single company is folly,” states Tansy. “They are just one of many. This idea that we can isolate and surround Huawei, and that will solve our problems – it is naive.”

He also states that while the Senate Intelligence Committee tries for a ban on Huawei, that there is a much larger threat to our nation’s security in the form of climate change. This is a threat which many senators, particularly in the Republican Party, have been actively denying.

“Let’s deal with the true emergencies of the day, and not conflate whatever notion we have about politics and balance of trade with China,” states Tansy.

来源：PV-magzine

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