Defense Mechanisms against Practical False Data Injection Attacks in Power Systems

Abstract

Deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has transformed modernized physical power systems to Cyber-Physical Power Systems (CPPSs). CPPS is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and a key principle of cyber security is Confidentiality-Integrity-Availability (CIA Triad). Popular attacks on the cyber layer of CPPS are Data Integrity Attacks. Data integrity attack is an attack where attacker can intrude into the system and inject false data into the system. One of the highly probable data integrity attacks is False Data Injection Attack (FDIA). FDIA is an undetectable attack that bypasses classical detection methods which can manipulate State Estimation (SE) and can further cause severe damage to the system. newlineLoad Redistribution Attack (LRA) is a practical FDIA that targets load bus active power injections and line active power flows to maximize Total Operational Cost (TOC). LRA causes unnecessary Load Shed (LS) and severe Economic Loss (EL). Ramp Induced Data Attack (RIDA) is another practical FDIA that targets initial generation dispatches and maximizes power imbalance. LRA or RIDA is modelled as a Bi-level Programming Problem (BPP), with attacker in upper-level maximizes TOC and operator in lower- level performs Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow (SCOPF). LRA is modelled with static SCOPF and RIDA is modelled with Dynamic SCOPF (D-SCOPF). In the thesis, D-SCOPF is static SCOPF along with Generator Ramp rate Constraints (GRCs). GRCs represent inner dynamics of generators and are mandatory during practical operations. newlineThis dissertation is composed of three components. First component investigates three practical FDIAs in D-SCOPF environment, named as Generator Ramp rate Constraints Induced Load Redistribution Attack (GRC-LRA), RIDA to maximize Total Operational Cost (TOC) and, RIDA Coordinated to GRC-LRA. In second component, probabilistic defense against LRA by selecting optimal critical units and later by playing static zero- newline newline