3,329 research outputs found
Smart Grid Security: Threats, Challenges, and Solutions
The cyber-physical nature of the smart grid has rendered it vulnerable to a
multitude of attacks that can occur at its communication, networking, and
physical entry points. Such cyber-physical attacks can have detrimental effects
on the operation of the grid as exemplified by the recent attack which caused a
blackout of the Ukranian power grid. Thus, to properly secure the smart grid,
it is of utmost importance to: a) understand its underlying vulnerabilities and
associated threats, b) quantify their effects, and c) devise appropriate
security solutions. In this paper, the key threats targeting the smart grid are
first exposed while assessing their effects on the operation and stability of
the grid. Then, the challenges involved in understanding these attacks and
devising defense strategies against them are identified. Potential solution
approaches that can help mitigate these threats are then discussed. Last, a
number of mathematical tools that can help in analyzing and implementing
security solutions are introduced. As such, this paper will provide the first
comprehensive overview on smart grid security
Quantifying the Influence of Component Failure Probability on Cascading Blackout Risk
The risk of cascading blackouts greatly relies on failure probabilities of
individual components in power grids. To quantify how component failure
probabilities (CFP) influences blackout risk (BR), this paper proposes a
sample-induced semi-analytic approach to characterize the relationship between
CFP and BR. To this end, we first give a generic component failure probability
function (CoFPF) to describe CFP with varying parameters or forms. Then the
exact relationship between BR and CoFPFs is built on the abstract
Markov-sequence model of cascading outages. Leveraging a set of samples
generated by blackout simulations, we further establish a sample-induced
semi-analytic mapping between the unbiased estimation of BR and CoFPFs.
Finally, we derive an efficient algorithm that can directly calculate the
unbiased estimation of BR when the CoFPFs change. Since no additional
simulations are required, the algorithm is computationally scalable and
efficient. Numerical experiments well confirm the theory and the algorithm
Mitigating Cascading Failures in Interdependent Power Grids and Communication Networks
In this paper, we study the interdependency between the power grid and the
communication network used to control the grid. A communication node depends on
the power grid in order to receive power for operation, and a power node
depends on the communication network in order to receive control signals for
safe operation. We demonstrate that these dependencies can lead to cascading
failures, and it is essential to consider the power flow equations for studying
the behavior of such interdependent networks. We propose a two-phase control
policy to mitigate the cascade of failures. In the first phase, our control
policy finds the non-avoidable failures that occur due to physical
disconnection. In the second phase, our algorithm redistributes the power so
that all the connected communication nodes have enough power for operation and
no power lines overload. We perform a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the
performance of our control policy, and show that our control policy achieves
close to optimal yield for many scenarios. This analysis can help design robust
interdependent grids and associated control policies.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, submitte
An Interaction Model for Simulation and Mitigation of Cascading Failures
In this paper the interactions between component failures are quantified and
the interaction matrix and interaction network are obtained. The quantified
interactions can capture the general propagation patterns of the cascades from
utilities or simulation, thus helping to better understand how cascading
failures propagate and to identify key links and key components that are
crucial for cascading failure propagation. By utilizing these interactions a
high-level probabilistic model called interaction model is proposed to study
the influence of interactions on cascading failure risk and to support online
decision-making. It is much more time efficient to first quantify the
interactions between component failures with fewer original cascades from a
more detailed cascading failure model and then perform the interaction model
simulation than it is to directly simulate a large number of cascades with a
more detailed model. Interaction-based mitigation measures are suggested to
mitigate cascading failure risk by weakening key links, which can be achieved
in real systems by wide area protection such as blocking of some specific
protective relays. The proposed interaction quantifying method and interaction
model are validated with line outage data generated by the AC OPA cascading
simulations on the IEEE 118-bus system.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Transactions on Power System
Changes in Cascading Failure Risk with Generator Dispatch Method and System Load Level
Industry reliability rules increasingly require utilities to study and
mitigate cascading failure risk in their system. Motivated by this, this paper
describes how cascading failure risk, in terms of expected blackout size,
varies with power system load level and pre-contingency dispatch. We used Monte
Carlo sampling of random branch outages to generate contingencies, and a model
of cascading failure to estimate blackout sizes. The risk associated with
different blackout sizes was separately estimated in order to separate small,
medium, and large blackout risk. Results from secure models of the IEEE
RTS case and a 2383 bus case indicate that blackout risk does not always
increase with load level monotonically, particularly for large blackout risk.
The results also show that risk is highly dependent on the method used for
generator dispatch. Minimum cost methods of dispatch can result in larger long
distance power transfers, which can increase cascading failure risk.Comment: Submitted to Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition
(T&D), 2014 IEEE PE
Impact Assessment of Hypothesized Cyberattacks on Interconnected Bulk Power Systems
The first-ever Ukraine cyberattack on power grid has proven its devastation
by hacking into their critical cyber assets. With administrative privileges
accessing substation networks/local control centers, one intelligent way of
coordinated cyberattacks is to execute a series of disruptive switching
executions on multiple substations using compromised supervisory control and
data acquisition (SCADA) systems. These actions can cause significant impacts
to an interconnected power grid. Unlike the previous power blackouts, such
high-impact initiating events can aggravate operating conditions, initiating
instability that may lead to system-wide cascading failure. A systemic
evaluation of "nightmare" scenarios is highly desirable for asset owners to
manage and prioritize the maintenance and investment in protecting their
cyberinfrastructure. This survey paper is a conceptual expansion of real-time
monitoring, anomaly detection, impact analyses, and mitigation (RAIM) framework
that emphasizes on the resulting impacts, both on steady-state and dynamic
aspects of power system stability. Hypothetically, we associate the
combinatorial analyses of steady state on substations/components outages and
dynamics of the sequential switching orders as part of the permutation. The
expanded framework includes (1) critical/noncritical combination verification,
(2) cascade confirmation, and (3) combination re-evaluation. This paper ends
with a discussion of the open issues for metrics and future design pertaining
the impact quantification of cyber-related contingencies
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An Assessment of PIER Electric Grid Research 2003-2014 White Paper
This white paper describes the circumstances in California around the turn of the 21st century that led the California Energy Commission (CEC) to direct additional Public Interest Energy Research funds to address critical electric grid issues, especially those arising from integrating high penetrations of variable renewable generation with the electric grid. It contains an assessment of the beneficial science and technology advances of the resultant portfolio of electric grid research projects administered under the direction of the CEC by a competitively selected contractor, the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and the Environment, from 2003-2014
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