South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the National Security Research Institute on Tuesday made public the "Intelligent Power Grid Cybersecurity Guidelines," prepared in cooperation with related agencies including the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Korea Electric Power Corp and the Korea Power Exchange.

The guidelines are intended to protect the national power grid, a key national infrastructure, from cyber threats as the importance of electricity grows amid the spread of AI and a surge in data centres. They also aim to support the government's policy task of building an "energy expressway."

The NIS first shared the guidelines on Monday at a "power grid cybersecurity council" attended by working-level officials from related agencies including the climate ministry and KEPCO. It posted them on the National Cyber Security Center website on Tuesday.

The 171-page guidelines present a linkage model among elements that make up an "intelligent power grid" and include security threats and countermeasures for 11 detailed linkage types.

An NIS official said, "We hope the guidelines will align the security bar among various operators and strengthen the overall security level of the national power grid."