European Commission chose to finance Defender project despite fairly strong competition. The total budget of Slovenian partners or acquired grants amounts to approximately one million Euro.
ELES d.o.o. is the operator of the Slovenian electricity transmission system, and it manages key parts of the nationally important electric power infrastructure. Within the scope of establishing integral corporate safety, ELES greatly emphasises the establishment of comprehensive and effective protection of the electric power infrastructure and the services carried out via this infrastructure. With regard to these activities, ELES collaborates with partners from Slovenia, the European Union and the wider Balkan region.
At the beginning of 2016, ELES started actively cooperating with partners from the European Union on the European project entitled Defender (Defending the European Energy Infrastructures, Critical Infrastructure Protection Topic 1: Prevention, detection, response and mitigation of the combination of physical and cyber threats to the critical infrastructure of Europe).
The aim of the project is to introduce a system for establishing mutual dependence and the implementation of data generated at all levels and in types of the infrastructure and services of ELES (TSO, critical infrastructure, critical services); on this basis, a further aim is to establish a model of mutual dependence of data, to analyse it and to introduce a model of complex responses to a given situation by including all the factors of the company and related stakeholders.
Within the scope of applying to the project, ELES became one of the links between the project partners, and an important project promoter. The preparation of the project application also contributed to the establishment of a unique collaboration between ELES, the Jožef Stefan Institute and the Institute for Corporate Security Studies in the area of critical infrastructure. At the European level, the Defender project is coordinated by the Italian company Engineering.
ELES prepared the proposal for the Defender project very well, because the European Commission chose to finance it despite fairly strong competition. We should also mention that in this case the project competition was significantly stronger than for any other project for which we have applied for EU grants so far. The total budget of Slovenian partners or acquired grants amounts to approximately one million Euro.
ELES is very proud that on the basis of teamwork involving the employees at Eles and associates from the Jožef Stefan Institute and the Institute for Corporate Security Studies, we have managed to take the first, key step within the scope of the Defender project, i.e. to guarantee the funds of the European Commission for financing the project’s implementation.
We now face the implementation of the project, which will be based on the team work and professionalism of all the project partners; therefore, we are convinced we can achieve all the goals set for this project.