ORANGE, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), a leading sustainable energy company and member of the Iberdrola Group, announced today that is has been named a 2023 Top Innovator by Public Utilities Fortnightly. The company received the Lewis Latimer Top Innovator in Design Award for its Cyber Security Simulation in Metaverse project, which created cybersecurity simulations to help the team update and improve its proactive defense strategies.
“We’re always exploring how innovative and disruptive technologies like the metaverse can be applied to solve our most critical business challenges—such as how we prepare and respond to system emergencies,” said Pedro Azagra, Avangrid CEO. “I’m very happy to see this project earning recognition as I think it’s a great example of where this technology can go. As we think about the future, the metaverse environment will provide opportunity to simulate real world spaces and enable hands on experiences for our workers and stakeholders, all for the benefit of our customers.”
The project built three interconnected virtual meta-worlds: an electrical substation, the electrical control center and a virtual cyber security collaboration meeting room. These meta-worlds were created in detail and included everything from overhead lines and transformers to an interactive control room. The pilot project then simulated cyber-attacks in the meta-worlds, such as a cybersecurity event in a substation that causes a fire and results in power outages. The Avangrid security team ran through these simulations using a virtual reality platform to identify, respond to and mitigate/eliminate the cyber threat.
“Imagine you hear an explosion, alarms are going off and there are employees scrambling to respond—what do you do?” said Carl Young, chief information officer at Avangrid. “This scenario is almost impossible to simulate in the real-world, but in the metaverse we can replay it over and over in a safe and controlled environment. This simulation can help us predict adversaries' behaviors and tactics as well as understand the impact on our infrastructure and the effectiveness of our processes and plans to mitigate and address these risks.”
The Avangrid team members who will be honored by Public Utilities Fortnightly are Carl Young, Mansur Mohammed, Robert Antonellis, James Fox, Crispin Gathuru, Jada Pinto and Ummi Rahman. The project was created in partnership with Microsoft and Bravent.
About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) aspires to be the leading sustainable energy company in the United States. Headquartered in Orange, CT with approximately $41 billion in assets and operations in 24 U.S. states, Avangrid has two primary lines of business: networks and renewables. Through its networks business, Avangrid owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Through its renewables business, Avangrid owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation facilities across the United States. Avangrid employs more than 7,500 people and has been recognized by JUST Capital in 2021, 2022 and 2023 as one of the JUST 100 companies – a ranking of America’s best corporate citizens. In 2023, Avangrid ranked first within the utility sector for its commitment to the environment. The company supports the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and was named among the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2023 for the fifth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the group of companies controlled by Iberdrola, S.A. For more information, visit www.avangrid.com.
