THE ISRAEL ELECTRIC CORPORATION LIMITED

Their core work

The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) is Israel's national electricity utility, responsible for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity across the country. In EU research projects, IEC participates as an operational end-user and real-world testbed: they bring live grid infrastructure, SCADA/IACS operational expertise, and critical infrastructure management experience that research consortia need to validate tools and methods against realistic conditions. Their H2020 work focused on protecting smart grid and interconnected critical infrastructure from cyber threats and cascading failures. They also contributed industrial cloud security requirements as an operator of sensitive operational technology environments.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

IEC's H2020 participation is narrow in scope — both projects launched in 2016 — so temporal evolution within the EU programme is limited. The two projects do reveal a coherent progression in theme: SecureCloud addressed foundational cloud security for sensitive data, while the larger ATENA project moved into operational critical infrastructure protection, including SCADA security, smart grid resilience, and cross-sector cascading failure analysis. This suggests IEC was building toward integrating secure cloud capabilities into their operational infrastructure protection strategy. There is no data beyond 2019 to confirm whether this trajectory continued.

IEC appears to be moving toward integrated cyber-physical security for smart grids, combining cloud security and industrial control system protection — a relevant direction for any consortium working on energy sector digitalisation or EPCIP-aligned security frameworks.

How they like to work

IEC has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, across both projects — consistent with the role of a large national utility acting as an end-user validator rather than a research driver. Their consortia were moderately sized (18 unique partners across 10 countries for just 2 projects), indicating they joined well-networked European research groups rather than bilateral collaborations. Working with IEC likely means access to a live national-scale electricity infrastructure as a test environment, with the organisation contributing operational requirements and validation rather than technical research leadership.

IEC has connected with 18 distinct partners across 10 countries through just 2 projects, suggesting they joined sizeable, geographically diverse consortia. Their collaboration footprint spans Europe and the Middle East, reflecting their role as a non-EU associated country participant in Horizon 2020.

What sets them apart

IEC is one of the very few national-scale electricity utilities from the Middle East active in EU research programmes, giving them a distinctive geopolitical and technical position as a bridge between European and Israeli energy security research communities. Unlike university research groups or technology SMEs in the same domain, IEC offers direct access to a functioning national grid with real SCADA systems, live interdependencies with gas networks, and decades of operational experience managing critical infrastructure under genuine security pressure. For a consortium seeking an operational end-user with credibility in EPCIP-level critical infrastructure protection, IEC is a rare and strategically valuable partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ATENA
  The largest of IEC's two EU projects (EUR 567,088), ATENA is notable for its scope — addressing ICT-physical interdependencies across smart grids and gas networks, with IEC contributing as a real national electricity operator to validate tools under EPCIP frameworks.
• SecureCloud
  Though smaller in budget (EUR 100,000), SecureCloud shows IEC's early engagement with cloud security for sensitive operational data — an unusual step for a traditional utility and a signal of their digital transformation agenda.