Cyber-attacks against voltage profile in smart distribution grids with highly-dispersed pv generators: Detection and protection

Abstract

In this work, we study the effect of cyber-attacks on voltage regulation in smart grids with highly dispersed photovoltaic (PV) power generators. We picture how the cyberattacks in the distribution network with the existence of PV generators can cause induced voltage violations of overvoltage or undervoltage. It is demonstrated that if an attacker falsifies measurements, voltage violations may occur in the system. A proposed algorithm using a PV perturbation method to check the response of the nodes in the network is applied to detect the cyberattacks and protect against destructive reactions as a second detection and protection layer in addition to classical cyber protection at the communication network layer. We establish a primary distribution network model that incorporates attacks that penetrate the communication network and inject falsified data. We project the proposed basic model into a distribution network example to show the effect of such attacks. We further use the extended model to evaluate the ability of the proposed algorithms to detect and hence protect from these attacks.