Towards modelling the impact of cyber attacks on a smart grid

The proposed use of advanced information and communication technologies in future smart grids has led to significant concern regarding the cyber protection of power systems. In order to prioritize the hardening of smart grid system components, it is important to understand the impact of various cyber attacks on electricity service. This paper provides an introduction to the problem of cyber attack impact analysis in the smart grid and highlights existing research in the field. We present an impact analysis framework where we focus on the model synthesis stage in which both cyber and physical grid entity relationships are modeled as directed graphs. Each node of the graph has associated state information that is governed by dynamical system equations that model the physics of the interaction (for electrical grid components) or functionality (for cyber grid elements). We illustrate how cause-effect relationships can be conveniently expressed for both analysis and extension to large-scale smart grid systems.