The PHOENIX project held a successful kick-off meeting at Capgemini headquarters in Issy Les Moulineaux, Paris, France on 12 and 13 September 2019. The aim of PHOENIX, funded by the European Commission through the programme Horizon 2020, is to develop cyber-shield armour to the European Electrical Power and Energy System (EPES) infrastructure. It focusses on protection of EPES via prevention, early detection and fast mitigation of cyberattacks.

Led by Capgemini Technology Services CIS France, the PHOENIX consortium brings together twenty-four partners from ten EU member states and associated countries. Representatives of nine European energy utilities, end-user organisations, industry, SMEs, research and academia from France, Greece, Germany, Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Luxemburg, Slovenia, Finland and Norway (Associated country) comprise the project consortium. PHOENIX will run for thirty-six months and is sponsored by EU via a grant of 8 Million Euros.

The European Commission’s Research Executive Agency was represented in the meeting by the PHOENIX’s project and legal officers. Dr. Farhan Sahito, PHOENIX Project Coordinator and Director of Cyber Innovation at Capgemini outlined the main objectives of the project and explained that the project results will enable a cooperative detection of large scale, cyber-human security and privacy incidents and attacks. The outcomes of the project will guarantee the continuity of operations and minimize cascading effects in the infrastructure itself, the environment, the citizens and the end-users at reasonable cost.