The research proposal aims to develop a cyber resilient operation and control strategies for a smart multi microgrid system in the distribution side of the smart power grid that can make the microgrids and its supporting main grid cyber resilient.
Increased concern on global warming has tremendously hiked the implementation of renewable energy solutions to the power generation sector which created additional challenges in proper utilization of these resources as they are climate dependent. The micro grid and smart grid integrates the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure with the power grid thereby enabling a new cyber physical grid that is efficient, reliable, and smart. As the smart power grid is connected to the cyber world through communication technology, all the communication nodes are now insecure as any attacker can intrude into the physical grid infrastructure through these nodes and may result in the power failure or other issues depending on the point of intrusion and level of attack. If it results in the attack/intrusion to main control centre, which may even result in blackouts. Thus, it necessitates that smart grid should be highly secure and resilient to such cyber threats. Though several cyber threats detection methods are available, none of them guarantees cent percent security and interestingly not all nodes are highly critical. Thus, it is necessary to identify the most vulnerable points in the smart grids and design resilient operation and control strategy that allows smart grid to recover from the potential cyber-attacks that may happen at the critical nodes. Studies have revealed the potential advantages of community micro grids in supporting the main grid under normal and emergency operational scenarios. Thus, community microgrids resilient operation can lead to resilient operation of the connected main grid too. To Enable the efficient operation of these microgrids, it is also supported with ICT infrastructures and thereby making these micro grids are also cyber vulnerable. Hence micro grids need to be made highly resilient in terms of its operation which can only be achieved by means developing cyber resilient control strategies for preattack on attack and post attack scenarios. These microgrids also need to perform its reliable operation even under a major communication failure which necessitates the need of autonomous and cooperative operation of these microgrids to support its own load and the main grid’s load ensuring the complete grid’s resilience. This research has a collaboration with UPV, Spain under the Erasmus Mundus scheme.
Collaborations with Universities / Industry Partnerships
Dr. Carlos Alvaraz Bel
Professor
Institute of Energy Engineering UPV Spain
