Delay Performance and Cybersecurity of Smart Grid Infrastructure

To address major challenges to conventional electric grids (e.g., generation diversification and optimal deployment of expensive assets), full visibility and pervasive control over utilities\u27 assets and services are being realized through the integratio

Saving Nine Without Stitching in Time: Integrity Check After-the-fact

Electrical substations transform voltage from high to low, or low to high for distribution and transmission, respectively, and are a critical part of our electricity infrastructure. The state of a substation is continuously measured for monitoring, controlling and protection purposes, using synchrophasor measurements. The IEC 61850 standard defines communication protocols for electrical substations, including transmission of synchrophasor measurements. However, IEC 61850 does not properly address cyber security, leaving this critical infrastructure highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. This paper describes the development and testing of a novel mechanism for delayed integrity check for synchrophasor measurements. The results show that the solution manages to detect when integrity of the synchrophasor transmission is compromised, without adding any delay to the time-critical synchrophasor transmission itself.acceptedVersio

Saving Nine Without Stitching in Time: Integrity Check After-the-fact

Electrical substations transform voltage from high to low, or low to high for distribution and transmission, respectively, and are a critical part of our electricity infrastructure. The state of a substation is continuously measured for monitoring, controlling and protection purposes, using synchrophasor measurements. The IEC 61850 standard defines communication protocols for electrical substations, including transmission of synchrophasor measurements. However, IEC 61850 does not properly address cyber security, leaving this critical infrastructure highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. This paper describes the development and testing of a novel mechanism for delayed integrity check for synchrophasor measurements. The results show that the solution manages to detect when integrity of the synchrophasor transmission is compromised, without adding any delay to the time-critical synchrophasor transmission itself.acceptedVersio

Studies of Uncertainties in Smart Grid: Wind Power Generation and Wide-Area Communication

This research work investigates the uncertainties in Smart Grid, with special focus on the uncertain wind power generation in wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) and the uncertain wide-area communication in wide-area measurement systems (WAMSs). For the uncertain wind power generation in WECSs, a new wind speed modeling method and an improved WECS control method are proposed, respectively. The modeling method considers the spatial and temporal distributions of wind speed disturbances and deploys a box uncertain set in wind speed models, which is more realistic for practicing engineers. The control method takes maximum power point tracking, wind speed forecasting, and wind turbine dynamics into account, and achieves a balance between power output maximization and operating cost minimization to further improve the overall efficiency of wind power generation. Specifically, through the proposed modeling and control methods, the wind power control problem is developed as a min-max optimal problem and efficiently solved with semi-definite programming. For the uncertain communication delay and communication loss (i.e. data loss) in WAMSs, the corresponding solutions are presented. First, the real-world communication delay is measured and analyzed, and the bounded modeling method for the communication delay is proposed for widearea applications and further applied for system-area and substation-area protection applications, respectively. The proposed bounded modeling method is expected to be an important tool in the planning, design, and operation of time-critical wide-area applications. Second, the real synchronization signal loss and synchrophasor data loss events are measured and analyzed. For the synchronization signal loss, the potential reasons and solutions are explored. For the synchrophasor data loss, a set of estimation methods are presented, including substitution, interpolation, and forecasting. The estimation methods aim to improve the accuracy and availability of WAMSs, and mitigate the effect of communication failure and data loss on wide-area applications

A study of the applicability of software-defined networking in industrial networks

173 p.Las redes industriales interconectan sensores y actuadores para llevar a cabo funciones de monitorización, control y protección en diferentes entornos, tales como sistemas de transporte o sistemas de automatización industrial. Estos sistemas ciberfísicos generalmente están soportados por múltiples redes de datos, ya sean cableadas o inalámbricas, a las cuales demandan nuevas prestaciones, de forma que el control y gestión de tales redes deben estar acoplados a las condiciones del propio sistema industrial. De este modo, aparecen requisitos relacionados con la flexibilidad, mantenibilidad y adaptabilidad, al mismo tiempo que las restricciones de calidad de servicio no se vean afectadas. Sin embargo, las estrategias de control de red tradicionales generalmente no se adaptan eficientemente a entornos cada vez más dinámicos y heterogéneos.Tras definir un conjunto de requerimientos de red y analizar las limitaciones de las soluciones actuales, se deduce que un control provisto independientemente de los propios dispositivos de red añadiría flexibilidad a dichas redes. Por consiguiente, la presente tesis explora la aplicabilidad de las redes definidas por software (Software-Defined Networking, SDN) en sistemas de automatización industrial. Para llevar a cabo este enfoque, se ha tomado como caso de estudio las redes de automatización basadas en el estándar IEC 61850, el cual es ampliamente usado en el diseño de las redes de comunicaciones en sistemas de distribución de energía, tales como las subestaciones eléctricas. El estándar IEC 61850 define diferentes servicios y protocolos con altos requisitos en terminos de latencia y disponibilidad de la red, los cuales han de ser satisfechos mediante técnicas de ingeniería de tráfico. Como resultado, aprovechando la flexibilidad y programabilidad ofrecidas por las redes definidas por software, en esta tesis se propone una arquitectura de control basada en el protocolo OpenFlow que, incluyendo tecnologías de gestión y monitorización de red, permite establecer políticas de tráfico acorde a su prioridad y al estado de la red.Además, las subestaciones eléctricas son un ejemplo representativo de infraestructura crítica, que son aquellas en las que un fallo puede resultar en graves pérdidas económicas, daños físicos y materiales. De esta forma, tales sistemas deben ser extremadamente seguros y robustos, por lo que es conveniente la implementación de topologías redundantes que ofrezcan un tiempo de reacción ante fallos mínimo. Con tal objetivo, el estándar IEC 62439-3 define los protocolos Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) y High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), los cuales garantizan un tiempo de recuperación nulo en caso de fallo mediante la redundancia activa de datos en redes Ethernet. Sin embargo, la gestión de redes basadas en PRP y HSR es estática e inflexible, lo que, añadido a la reducción de ancho de banda debida la duplicación de datos, hace difícil un control eficiente de los recursos disponibles. En dicho sentido, esta tesis propone control de la redundancia basado en el paradigma SDN para un aprovechamiento eficiente de topologías malladas, al mismo tiempo que se garantiza la disponibilidad de las aplicaciones de control y monitorización. En particular, se discute cómo el protocolo OpenFlow permite a un controlador externo configurar múltiples caminos redundantes entre dispositivos con varias interfaces de red, así como en entornos inalámbricos. De esta forma, los servicios críticos pueden protegerse en situaciones de interferencia y movilidad.La evaluación de la idoneidad de las soluciones propuestas ha sido llevada a cabo, principalmente, mediante la emulación de diferentes topologías y tipos de tráfico. Igualmente, se ha estudiado analítica y experimentalmente cómo afecta a la latencia el poder reducir el número de saltos en las comunicaciones con respecto al uso de un árbol de expansión, así como balancear la carga en una red de nivel 2. Además, se ha realizado un análisis de la mejora de la eficiencia en el uso de los recursos de red y la robustez alcanzada con la combinación de los protocolos PRP y HSR con un control llevado a cabo mediante OpenFlow. Estos resultados muestran que el modelo SDN podría mejorar significativamente las prestaciones de una red industrial de misión crítica

JTIT

kwartalni

Converged IP-over-standard ethernet progress control networks for hydrocarbon process automation applications controllers

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The maturity level of Internet Protocol (IP) and the emergence of standard Ethernet interfaces of Hydrocarbon Process Automation Application (HPAA) present a real opportunity to combine independent industrial applications onto an integrated IP based network platform. Quality of Service (QoS) for IP over Ethernet has the strength to regulate traffic mix and support timely delivery. The combinations of these technologies lend themselves to provide a platform to support HPAA applications across Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) networks. HPAA systems are composed of sensors, actuators, and logic solvers networked together to form independent control system network platforms. They support hydrocarbon plants operating under critical conditions that — if not controlled — could become dangerous to people, assets and the environment. This demands high speed networking which is triggered by the need to capture data with higher frequency rate at a finer granularity. Nevertheless, existing HPAA network infrastructure is based on unique autonomous systems, which has resulted in multiple, parallel and separate networks with limited interconnectivity supporting different functions. This created increased complexity in integrating various applications and resulted higher costs in the technology life cycle total ownership. To date, the concept of consolidating HPAA into a converged IP network over standard Ethernet has not yet been explored. This research aims to explore and develop the HPAA Process Control Systems (PCS) in a Converged Internet Protocol (CIP) using experimental and simulated networks case studies. Results from experimental and simulation work showed encouraging outcomes and provided a good argument for supporting the co-existence of HPAA and non-HPAA applications taking into consideration timeliness and reliability requirements. This was achieved by invoking priority based scheduling with the highest priority being awarded to PCS among other supported services such as voice, multimedia streams and other applications. HPAA can benefit from utilizing CIP over Ethernet by reducing the number of interdependent HPAA PCS networks to a single uniform and standard network. In addition, this integrated infrastructure offers a platform for additional support services such as multimedia streaming, voice, and data. This network‐based model manifests itself to be integrated with remote control system platform capabilities at the end user's desktop independent of space and time resulting in the concept of plant virtualization

Universal Smart Grid Agent for Distributed Power Generation Management

"Somewhere, there is always wind blowing or the sun shining." This maxim could lead the global shift from fossil to renewable energy sources, suggesting that there is enough energy available to be turned into electricity. But the already impressive numbers that are available today, along with the European Union's 20-20-20 goal – to power 20% of the EU energy consumption from renewables until 2020 –, might mislead us over the problem that the go-to renewables readily available rely on a primary energy source mankind cannot control: the weather. At the same time, the notion of the smart grid introduces a vast array of new data coming from sensors in the power grid, at wind farms, power plants, transformers, and consumers. The new wealth of information might seem overwhelming, but can help to manage the different actors in the power grid. This book proposes to view the problem of power generation and distribution in the face of increased volatility as a problem of information distribution and processing. It enhances the power grid by turning its nodes into agents that forecast their local power balance from historical data, using artificial neural networks and the multi-part evolutionary training algorithm described in this book. They pro-actively communicate power demand and supply, adhering to a set of behavioral rules this book defines, and finally solve the 0-1 knapsack problem of choosing offers in such a way that not only solves the disequilibrium, but also minimizes line loss, by elegant modeling in the Boolean domain. The book shows that the Divide-et-Impera approach of a distributed grid control can lead to an efficient, reliable integration of volatile renewable energy sources into the power grid