scholarly journals A Lightweight Scheme to Authenticate and Secure the Communication in Smart Grids

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israa Aziz ◽  
Hai Jin ◽  
Ihsan Abdulqadder ◽  
Zaid Hussien ◽  
Zaid Abduljabbar ◽  
...  

Self-reconfiguration in electrical power grids is a significant tool for their planning and operation during both normal and abnormal conditions. The increasing in employment of Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), as well as the rapid growth of the new communication technologies have increased the application of Feeder Automation (FA) in Distribution Networks (DNs). In a Smart Grid (SG), automation equipment, such as a Smart Breaker (SB), is used. Using either a wired or a wireless network or even a combination of both, communication between the Control Center (CC) and SBs can be made. Nowadays, wireless technology is widely used in the communication of DNs. This may cause several security vulnerabilities in the power system, such as remote attacks, with the goal of cutting off the electrical power provided to significant consumers. Therefore, to preserve the cybersecurity of the system, there is a need for a secure scheme. The available literature investments proposed a heavyweight level in security schemes, while the overhead was not considered. To overcome this drawback, this paper presents an efficient lightweight authentication mechanism with the necessary steps to ensure real-time automatic reconfiguration during a fault. As a first stage, authentication will be made between CC and SB, SB then sends the information about its status. To ensure the integrity of the authentication exchange, a hash function is used, while the symmetric algorithm is used to ensure privacy. The applicability of the suggested scheme has been proved by conducting security performance and analysis. The proposed scheme will be injected on ABB medium voltage breaker with the REF 542plus controller. Therefore, the probable benefit of the suggested scheme is the contribution to provide more flexibility for electrical utilities in terms of reducing the overall computational overhead and withstanding to various types of attacks, while also opening new prospects in FA of SGs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
Plamen Antonov Stanchev ◽  
Mediha Enver Mehmed-Hamza

In the medium voltage electrical power lines, the most common fault is the phase to ground fault. The determining factors for selection of the neutral grounding mode of the medium voltage electrical power lines are the selectivity of the relay protection, the transient voltages during phase to ground fault, the magnitude of the fault currents, etc. The paper studies the influence of the transient resistance of phase to ground fault on the selectivity and sensitivity of the earth fault protection when the neutral of the power transformer is grounded through active resistance in medium voltage power grids.


Author(s):  
Uttam Ghosh ◽  
Pushpita Chatterjee ◽  
Sachin Shetty

Software-defined networking (SDN) provides flexibility in controlling, managing, and dynamically reconfiguring the distributed heterogeneous smart grid networks. Considerably less attention has been received to provide security in SDN-enabled smart grids. Centralized SDN controller protects smart grid networks against outside attacks only. Furthermore, centralized SDN controller suffers from a single point of compromise and failure which is detrimental to security and reliability. This chapter presents a framework with multiple SDN controllers and security controllers that provides a secure and robust smart grid architecture. The proposed framework deploys a local IDS to provide security in a substation. Whereas a global IDS is deployed to provide security in control center and overall smart grid network, it further verifies the consequences of control-commands issued by SDN controller and SCADA master. Performance comparison and simulation result show that the proposed framework is efficient as compared to existing security frameworks for SDN-enabled smart grids.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1028-1046
Author(s):  
Uttam Ghosh ◽  
Pushpita Chatterjee ◽  
Sachin Shetty

Software-defined networking (SDN) provides flexibility in controlling, managing, and dynamically reconfiguring the distributed heterogeneous smart grid networks. Considerably less attention has been received to provide security in SDN-enabled smart grids. Centralized SDN controller protects smart grid networks against outside attacks only. Furthermore, centralized SDN controller suffers from a single point of compromise and failure which is detrimental to security and reliability. This chapter presents a framework with multiple SDN controllers and security controllers that provides a secure and robust smart grid architecture. The proposed framework deploys a local IDS to provide security in a substation. Whereas a global IDS is deployed to provide security in control center and overall smart grid network, it further verifies the consequences of control-commands issued by SDN controller and SCADA master. Performance comparison and simulation result show that the proposed framework is efficient as compared to existing security frameworks for SDN-enabled smart grids.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitor Monteiro ◽  
Jose Afonso ◽  
Joao Ferreira ◽  
Joao Afonso

Nowadays, concerns about climate change have contributed significantly to changing the paradigm in the urban transportation sector towards vehicle electrification, where purely electric or hybrid vehicles are increasingly a new reality, supported by all major automotive brands. Nevertheless, new challenges are imposed on the current electrical power grids in terms of a synergistic, progressive, dynamic and stable integration of electric mobility. Besides the traditional unidirectional charging, more and more, the adoption of a bidirectional interconnection is expected to be a reality. In addition, whenever the vehicle is plugged-in, the on-board power electronics can also be used for other purposes, such as in the event of a power failure, regardless if the vehicle is in charging mode or not. Other new opportunities, from the electrical grid point of view, are even more relevant in the context of off-board power electronics systems, which can be enhanced with new features as, for example, compensation of power quality problems or interface with renewable energy sources. In this sense, this paper aims to present, in a comprehensive way, the new challenges and opportunities that smart grids are facing, including the new technologies in the vehicle electrification, towards a sustainable future. A theoretical analysis is also presented and supported by experimental validation based on developed laboratory prototypes.


Cryptography ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 257-276
Author(s):  
Melesio Calderón Muñoz ◽  
Melody Moh

The electrical power grid forms the functional foundation of our modern societies, but in the near future our aging electrical infrastructure will not be able to keep pace with our demands. As a result, nations worldwide have started to convert their power grids into smart grids that will have improved communication and control systems. A smart grid will be better able to incorporate new forms of energy generation as well as be self-healing and more reliable. This paper investigates a threat to wireless communication networks from a fully realized quantum computer, and provides a means to avoid this problem in smart grid domains. We discuss and compare the security aspects, the complexities and the performance of authentication using public-key cryptography and using Merkel trees. As a result, we argue for the use of Merkle trees as opposed to public key encryption for authentication of devices in wireless mesh networks (WMN) used in smart grid applications.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8585
Author(s):  
Joao L. Afonso ◽  
Mohamed Tanta ◽  
José Gabriel Oliveira Pinto ◽  
Luis F. C. Monteiro ◽  
Luis Machado ◽  
...  

Nowadays, new challenges arise relating to the compensation of power quality problems, where the introduction of innovative solutions based on power electronics is of paramount importance. The evolution from conventional electrical power grids to smart grids requires the use of a large number of power electronics converters, indispensable for the integration of key technologies, such as renewable energies, electric mobility and energy storage systems, which adds importance to power quality issues. Addressing these topics, this paper presents an extensive review on power electronics technologies applied to power quality improvement, highlighting, and explaining the main phenomena associated with the occurrence of power quality problems in smart grids, their cause and effects for different activity sectors, and the main power electronics topologies for each technological solution. More specifically, the paper presents a review and classification of the main power quality problems and the respective context with the standards, a review of power quality problems related to the power production from renewables, the contextualization with solid-state transformers, electric mobility and electrical railway systems, a review of power electronics solutions to compensate the main power quality problems, as well as power electronics solutions to guarantee high levels of power quality. Relevant experimental results and exemplificative developed power electronics prototypes are also presented throughout the paper.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 3560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Della Giustina ◽  
Amelia Alvarez de Sotomayor ◽  
Alessio Dedè ◽  
Francisco Ramos

The paper aims at describing a model-based approach to design automation logics for fault location and supply restoration in medium voltage distribution networks. The application of automation functions along medium voltage feeders and, in particular, the installation of protection devices in secondary substations mandates the design and the implementation of complex logics to coordinate the operations of this hardware in case of fault occurrences. This synchronization is realized with the exchange of IEC 61850 GOOSE messages, but the correct usage of this information must be implemented in each protection device through dedicated logics, which are not in the common out-of-the-box system configurations. To support the introduction and the design of these logics, an automata-based approach has been proposed and successfully demonstrated in a real environment in the European research project IDE4L. This formal methodology has been introduced to simplify the design phase and to standardize the logics implemented in the protection prototypes realized in the project. The same models have also been used in the implementation phase with a semi-automatic code generation procedure, considering as a target system the software programmable logic controllers (soft-PLCs), available on the protection devices. Based on the test results and the short time to set up the test bench, this approach proved to be a reliable and effective way to implement complex medium voltage (MV) automation logics such those needed in modern smart grids.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiva Stanelyte ◽  
Virginijus Radziukynas

The traditional unidirectional, passive distribution power grids are rapidly developing into bidirectional, interactive, multi-coordinated smart grids that cover distributed power generation along with advanced information communications and electronic power technologies. To better integrate the use of renewable energy resources into the grid, to improve the voltage stability of distribution grids, to improve the grid protection and to reduce harmonics, one needs to select and control devices with adjustable reactive power (capacitor batteries, transformers, and reactors) and provide certain solutions so that the photovoltaic (PV) converters maintain due to voltage. Conventional compensation methods are no longer appropriate, thus developing measures are necessary that would ensure local reactive and harmonic compensation in case an energy quality problem happens in the low voltage distribution grid. Compared to the centralized methods, artificial intelligence (heuristic) methods are able to distribute computing and communication tasks among control devices.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1879
Author(s):  
Armin Veichtlbauer ◽  
Alexander Heinisch ◽  
Ferdinand von von Tüllenburg ◽  
Peter Dorfinger ◽  
Oliver Langthaler ◽  
...  

Due to changed power consumption patterns, technological advance and deregulation, the appearance of the power grid in the low and medium voltage segment has changed. The spread of heating and cooling with electrical energy and an increase of electric vehicles as well as the broad rollout of photovoltaic systems has a major impact on the peak power demand of modern households and the volatility smart grids have to face. Thus, besides the load impact of the growing population of electric vehicles, modern households are not only consumers of electrical power, but also power producers, so called prosumers. The rising number of prosumers and the limitations of grid capacities lead to an increasingly distributed system of heterogeneous components, which have to be managed and operated with locality and scalability in mind. Virtualisation technologies, particularly known as state of the art in data centre computing, can lead to a paradigm shift needed to meet the growing demands of this evolution. A key issue here is to forward data to the correct data sinks, where data are required in order to keep the grid balanced. This routing process has to be able to react on grid changes in a timely manner, i.e., it must be based on the instantaneous state of the grid. In this paper, we propose a solution based on virtualising the communication infrastructure in the low and medium voltage grid. We evaluate two different approaches. The first approach is based on SDN; an ONOS SDN controller is used to change the behaviour of the communication infrastructure according to information provided by components of the power grid. The second approach uses Coaty and a Mosquitto MQTT broker to deliver messages to the desired endpoint, again based on information from the power grid.


The term “Smart grid” is used for the modernized electrical power system grids. Power grids as we know it is a collection of generation units and load centers that are connected through power lines. Smart grids are a newer version of power grids which basically is the digitalization of the infrastructure with the involvement of smart meters, sensors and different types of IED’s (Intelligent Electronic Devices). As the grids become smart they become vulnerable to attacks over the internet i.e., cyber attacks


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