Cyber Security for Power Grids

Power grids worldwide are undergoing a revolutionary transition as so-called “smart grids” that exploit renewable energy sources are emerging. As such distributed power generation requires networked control, future power systems will become more exposed to cyber attacks. This paper discusses cyber security challenges for a future power grid. It highlights deficiencies and shortcomings of existing power devices and identifies areas of urgent need particularly on the software side to establish security as a first-class paradigm in cyber-physical control systems. Such actions are urgent as a cyber compromise of power systems can lead to physical outages or even damaged power devices. Hence, security and fault resilience of power as a utility must be a prime objective for power grids. Security compromises should be contained to only present themselves as localized faults and to prevent faults