Embedded automation for energy applications and its interdependence with the info´structure

Electrical energy applications rely ever more on an information infrastructure (info´structure), consisting of heterogeneous off-the-shelf information and communication technology for hardware, software and networking. This provides flexibility for the application, but also implies vulnerabilities as the electrical energy infrastructure depends on the correct functioning of the info´structure, in spite of random (physical) and malicious faults. In order to provide a robust application behaviour for the energy application, the info´structure needs to be fault-tolerant and able to deal with a dynamic environment; middleware can provide the required graceful degradation in case of unrecovered failures, rather than resulting in a complete breakdown.