Critical infrastructure refers to any physical or virtual networks, systems, and assets critical to the nation that their destruction or incapacitation would harm national security, public health, and safety, economy, or any combination of them. In simpler terms, critical infrastructure consists of all people, systems, or things that must always be operational and intact for daily works and lives to succeed” – DHS·
Power/electricity is unarguably one of the vital critical infrastructures that supports the society
BACKGROUND
The Nigeria power sector is made up of 3 sub sectors, namely:
– Generation
– Transmission
– Distribution
There are 23 grid-connected power plants in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)
The Niger Delta area houses
· Afam Power Plant, Rivers State
· Transcorp Power Limited, Delta State
· Sapele Power Plc, Delta State
· Ibom Power Company, Akwa Ibom State
Port Harcourt Distribution Company: Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states
· Benin Distribution Company: Edo, Deltas, Ondo and Ekiti states
A look at power sector infrastructure today
The Nigerian national electricity grid is a network of generation companies, distribution companies and the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Private companies are allowed to generate and distribute electricity. The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is solely responsible for transmission of electricity generated.
The national grid has reportedly collapsed several times this year, bringing untold hardship to the citizens and the attendant economic loss to the nation. The collapse of the grid in September was said to be the 8th time this year. It is already in public domain that Nigeria’s electricity generation is far below the demand of the nation.
Physical Protection System: Procedures and Processes
Several factors have been attributed as reasons for the collapse of national grid, one of which is acts of vandalization of infrastructure by criminal elements.
A systematic protection system has to be put in place with established procedures and processes that are measurable and auditable. This protection system must be in line with the concept of Protection-in-dept: which is the establishment of multiple layers of barriers in the protection of an asset/infrastructure.
These measures must accomplish the goals to:
1. Deterrence: The initial layer of security; the goal of deterrence is to convince unwanted persons that a successful effort to enter an unauthorized area is unlikely. Fences, walls, vehicle barriers, electronic card access and cameras at entryways are examples of deterrence provisions.
2. Detection. Locate, identify and contain the movement of unwanted persons who have gained unauthorized entry to facilities. Alarms are centrally received. Detection devices include door alarms, glass breaks, and motion sensors.
3. Delay. Impede, isolate and forestall the movement of an unwanted party within a facility.
4. Deny: This is the ultimate purpose of the protection system. To deny the adversary access to the protected asset
5. Response. Ensure that coordinated, interactive and reliable communication system and procedures are in place to facilitate an immediate and effective response from appropriate authority.
The following at the least are recommended:
1. Intelligence gathering: Efficient Intelligence gathering system will lead to threat identification and classification in term of their types, number, class, capability, motivation, potential, strength and weaknesses. This process is called Threat Assessment. The result is usually given in Low (L), Medium (M), High (H) and Extreme (X) as the case may be. Please note that this process is never generic but infrastructure/asset specific.
2. Risk Assessment: The next process is Risk Assessment. In this process, each of the assessed threats are further analysed in terms Probability (likelihood) and Impact (consequence) to determine their Assessed Risk Level (severity) to the infrastructure/asset. This analysis could be either quantitative or qualitative. This is very critical process in that it determines what level of mitigation to put in place to protect the infrastructure. In order words, it determines where money is to be spent. 3. Mitigation measures: Mitigations are measures put in place to reduce a risk to As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). There are no text book guide for mitigation. It is determined by a combination of multiple variables such as cost, environment, effectiveness, Government regulations, Local Laws and customs, and most importantly the Assessed Risk Level (ARL).
* Community based security/surveillance
Mitigations are measures put in place to reduce a risk to As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). There are no text book guides for mitigation. It is determined by a combination of multiple variables such as cost, environment, effectiveness, Government regulations, Local Laws and customs, and most importantly the Assessed Risk Level (ARL).
· Use of professional trained and licensed civil guards
· Use of armed GSFs
· Use of intrusion detection and prevention systems · Application of CPTED. The concept of CPTED (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) capitalizes on the use of natural or covert barriers, creating “defensible space” and other overlapping strategies to create zones of access and reduce criminal activities.
– By Felix Obazee CPP, CPO, being a paper presented at the Niger Delta Infrastructure Security Summit with the theme: “Infrastructure Security: Responsibility in collective national interest” held at Port Harcourt, Nigeria, November 21-23, 2022
