E.ON warns of growing risk of attacks on energy infrastructure

ESSEN, Germany, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Companies must prepare for successful attacks on critical power infrastructure as both physical and cyber threats continue to increase, the CEO of E.ON EONGn.DE, Europe's largest operator of energy grids, said on Thursday.

"Attacks on our grids are increasing significantly," Leonhard Birnbaum told an industry conference, adding that both physical and cyber attacks had increased in recent years.

Several sabotage attempts on Germany's power grid earlier this month have highlighted the vulnerability of such critical assets, exposing the limitations operators and authorities face when attempting full protection.

Birnbaum said companies should abandon the idea that they could fully shield themselves from attacks and rather focus on preparation, pointing to the fact that grid assets are high in numbers and geographically spread.

"I have 2,720 substations," he said. "I cannot put security guards at every one of them," he said, adding that the costs for on-site protection would not be covered by Germany's energy regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur.