Graph-based Cyber Security Analysis of State Estimation in Smart Power Grid
This work addresses cyber-security vulnerabilities in smart power grids, which are critical for maintaining normal operation, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing security analysis methods by adding a graphical approach.
The authors tackled the problem of cyber-security threats to power system state estimation in smart grids by introducing a graph-based framework, which provides intuitive visualization and enables efficient graphical solution algorithms for both defense and attack scenarios.
Smart power grid enables intelligent automation at all levels of power system operation, from electricity generation at power plants to power usage at households. The key enabling factor of an efficient smart grid is its built-in information and communication technology (ICT) that monitors the real-time system operating state and makes control decisions accordingly. As an important building block of the ICT system, power system state estimation is of critical importance to maintain normal operation of the smart grid, which, however, is under mounting threat from potential cyber attacks. In this article, we introduce a graph-based framework for performing cyber-security analysis in power system state estimation. Compared to conventional arithmetic-based security analysis, the graphical characterization of state estimation security provides intuitive visualization of some complex problem structures and enables efficient graphical solution algorithms, which are useful for both defending and attacking the ICT system of smart grid. We also highlight several promising future research directions on graph-based security analysis and its applications in smart power grid.