Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is an industrial energy system that generates electricity and useful thermal energy from the same fuel source. Instead of wasting exhaust heat, a CHP plant captures it for heating, steam, or process use, which improves overall efficiency. These facilities are common in factories, district heating systems, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure.
In cyber security, CHP matters because production is tightly coupled: if an attacker disrupts the turbine, boiler, control logic, or supporting systems such as water treatment, the plant may lose both power and heat output. That makes CHP environments attractive targets for sabotage, extortion, or operational disruption. Defenders should protect remote access, segment OT networks, monitor commands and alarms, and ensure safe fallback and recovery procedures. In practice, the security of the communications layer is often as important as the machinery itself.