Man-Made Threats Assessment in Energy Key Assets with a Passive Defense Approach Case Study: Hamadan Province

Energy infrastructure, as one of the key assets of the country, has a network and trans-provincial function due to the interaction with other infrastructures. If it is disrupted due to the occurrence of intentional man-made threats, other sectors will also face challenges. Therefore, it is important for decision-makers and managers to have a rational view of energy infrastructure threats. Based on this, this research with the aim of prioritization of threats by using quantitative techniques of hierarchical analysis tries to prove this hypothesis that it seems that the spectrum of perceived threats should be investigated regarding the assets of the energy sector and proposed measures to reduce its vulnerability according to each one. In this regard, the current research is applied-developmental and descriptive-analytical. The method of collecting information will be a combination of qualitative library and document collection method and quantitative information collection using a closed semi-structured questionnaire. The data analysis method will be mixed, using the WBM method and quantitative statistical analysis, and the analysis of cause and effect relationships will be the qualitative method of analyzing the findings. The results of the research, the validity and reliability of which has been confirmed by the community of experts, indicated that in Hamadan province, the damage intensity index has the most weight in determining the importance of threats, and due to the presence of active defense equipment in the province Hamadan has assigned the least weight to the enemy capability index in determining the importance of threats. The results show that air-missile threats are the most important threat to the energy infrastructure in Hamadan province, but it is not the highest priority. The cyber threat is not the most important threat due to its lower intensity, but it is highly preferred for hostile groups due to the few negative consequences.