Protecting Intelligent Distributed Power Grids against Cyber Attacks

Like other industrial sectors, the electrical power industry is facing challenges involved with the increasing demand for interconnected operations and control. The electrical industry has largely been restructured due to deregulation of the electrical market and the trend of the Smart Grid. This moves new automation systems from being proprietary and closed to the current state of Information Technology (IT) being highly interconnected and open. However, while gaining all of the scale and performance benefits of IT, existing IT security challenges are acquired as well. The power grid automation network has inherent security risks due to the fact that the systems and applications for the power grid were not originally designed for the general IT environment. In this paper, we propose a conceptual layered framework for protecting power grid automation systems against cyber attacks. The following factors are taken into account: (1) integration with existing, legacy systems in a non-intrusive fashion; (2) desirable performance in terms of modularity, scalability, extendibility, and manageability; (3) alignment to the 'Roadmap to Secure Control Systems in the Energy Sector' and the future smart grid. The on-site system test of the developed prototype security system is briefly presented as well