Cybersecurity and Resilience in Integrated Electricity–Hydrogen–Water Systems: A Critical Narrative Review and Research Agenda for Southern Africa

Source abstract

Integrated electricity–hydrogen–water systems depend on digital coordination between renewable generation, water treatment, electrolysis and storage. Their security therefore requires an understanding of how compromised information affects physical dependencies and essential services. This critical narrative review synthesises selected technical studies, operational incident documentation, security guidance and Southern African infrastructure sources identified and checked through 18 October 2026. The analysis distinguishes numerical simulation, physical testbeds, hardware-in-the-loop experimentation, architectural proposals and operational reporting. Selected studies demonstrate attacks on coupled water–energy and hydrogen–power systems, including measurement reconstruction, economic mitigation and modelled recovery; experimental hydrogen-system evidence also exists. These findings support cross-sector threat analysis but do not establish field-validated resilience of a complete electricity–hydrogen–water service chain. The review develops an attack-to-service taxonomy, three conditional propagation scenarios, and a six-phase resilience framework covering preparation, detection, containment, safe degradation, restoration and learning. Its principal analytical contribution is to connect digital trust boundaries with usable storage, safety constraints and measurable service outcomes. Application to Southern Africa highlights water allocation, secure procurement and coordinated incident management. The resulting research agenda prioritises reproducible evaluation of service continuity alongside detection performance.