Detection of cyber attacks in power distribution energy management systems

The objective of this thesis is to detect certain cyber attacks in a power distribution ener-gy management system in a Smart Grid infrastructure. In the Smart Grid, signals are sent be-tween the distribution operator and the customer on a real-time basis. Signals are used for auto-mated energy management, protection and energy metering. This thesis aims at making use of various signals in the system to detect cyber attacks. The focus of the thesis is on a cyber attack that changes the parameters of the energy management system. The attacks considered change the set points, thresholds for energy management decisions, signal multipliers, and other digitally stored parameters that ultimately determine the transfer functions of the components. Since the distribution energy management system is assumed to be in a Smart Grid infrastructure, customer demand is elastic to the price of energy. The energy pricing is represented by a distribution loca-tional marginal price. A closed loop control system is utilized as representative of the energy management system. Each element of the system is represented by a linear transfer function. Studies are done via simulations and these simulations are performed in Matlab SimuLink. The analytical calculations are done using Matlab.

Signals from the system are used to obtain the frequency response of the component transfer functions. The magnitude and phase angle of the transfer functions are obtained using the fast Fourier transform. The transfer function phase angles of base cases (no attack) are stored and are compared with the phase angles calculated at regular time intervals. If the difference in the phase characteristics is greater than a set threshold, an alarm is issued indicating the detection of a cyber attack.

The developed algorithm is designed for use in the envisioned Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system. Examples are shown for the noise free and noisy cases.