Secure Control and Operation of Energy Cyber-Physical Systems Through Intelligent Agents

Authors

Mohamad El HaririFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor's Name

Osama Mohammed

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Kemal Akkaya

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Mohammed Hadi

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Sakhrat Khizroev

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fifth Advisor's Name

Mark Roberts

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

smart grid, cyber security, cyber-physical systems, IEC 61850, GOOSE, SMV, artificial intelligence, dds

Date of Defense

11-5-2018

Abstract

The operation of the smart grid is expected to be heavily reliant on microprocessor-based control. Thus, there is a strong need for interoperability standards to address the heterogeneous nature of the data in the smart grid. In this research, we analyzed in detail the security threats of the Generic Object Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) and Sampled Measured Values (SMV) protocol mappings of the IEC 61850 data modeling standard, which is the most widely industry-accepted standard for power system automation and control. We found that there is a strong need for security solutions that are capable of defending the grid against cyber-attacks, minimizing the damage in case a cyber-incident occurs, and restoring services within minimal time.

To address these risks, we focused on correlating cyber security algorithms with physical characteristics of the power system by developing intelligent agents that use this knowledge as an important second line of defense in detecting malicious activity. This will complement the cyber security methods, including encryption and authentication. Firstly, we developed a physical-model-checking algorithm, which uses artificial neural networks to identify switching-related attacks on power systems based on load flow characteristics.

Secondly, the feasibility of using neural network forecasters to detect spoofed sampled values was investigated. We showed that although such forecasters have high spoofed-data-detection accuracy, they are prone to the accumulation of forecasting error. In this research, we proposed an algorithm to detect the accumulation of the forecasting error based on lightweight statistical indicators. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms was experimentally verified on the Smart Grid testbed at FIU. The test results showed that the proposed techniques have a minimal detection latency, in the range of microseconds.

Also, in this research we developed a network-in-the-loop co-simulation platform that seamlessly integrates the components of the smart grid together, especially since they are governed by different regulations and owned by different entities. Power system simulation software, microcontrollers, and a real communication infrastructure were combined together to provide a cohesive smart grid platform. A data-centric communication scheme was selected to provide an interoperability layer between multi-vendor devices, software packages, and to bridge different protocols together.

Identifier

FIDC007048

ORCID

0000-0003-1097-6122

Recommended Citation

El Hariri, Mohamad, "Secure Control and Operation of Energy Cyber-Physical Systems Through Intelligent Agents" (2018). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3854.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3854