When storms hit Adelaide last November the first thing the AEMO did was ask people to switch off their own solar panels so they didn't swamp and crash the fragile wounded grid. Some 400MW of rooftop PV was also remotely shut down through the combination of smart inverters and voltage controls. Imagine if a foreign power could launch a cyber attack — one that switched a large energy source on or off at the wrong moment?

Last year  "a hacker gained access to PV systems in the Netherlands that were operated via a monitoring tool from China's Solarman". That meant a Dutch government agency was suddenly called on to investigate and report on the risks. According to PV magazine:

"The hacker was able to view the personal data of Dutch customers, create new customers and delete existing users," reported Tweakers. "He was also able to find out how much electricity customers' solar panels generate via GPS coordinates, and download, adjust and upload inverter firmware."

In May this year a report by  the Dutch National Digital Infrastructure Inspectorate (RDI) found that many inverters didn't comply with requirements and could cause interference with other electrical equipment — indeed five of the nine inverters they tested may cause interference, and nine out of nine were judged to be "noncompliant". InnovationsOrigins.com reports that  "radio or wireless tags to open doors, could be affected and possibly function less well or not at all. Even aviation and shipping may be affected." Really?