Development of a Collaborative Hybrid Cyber-Physical Testbed for Analysing Cybersecurity Issues of DER Systems

As renewable distributed energy resources (DER) become more integrated with power grids, maintaining a secure cyber infrastructure is essential for ensuring a sustainable and reliable power supply. This study examines various cyberphysical testbeds and research laboratories that have been established for developing and designing secure cyber-physical power system (CPPS), specifically DER systems. In addressing the limitations of existing testbeds, a new hybrid testbed is proposed that emphasizes vulnerability analysis of DER systems. The testbed combines simulation with real distribution network data, enabling researchers to study a range of cyberattacks and corresponding countermeasures. This testbed provides a platform for collaborative research and includes industrial components that allow for hardware-in-the-loop testing. Overall, the proposed testbed facilitates both qualitative and quantitative security risk assessments of different cyberattacks on the DER ecosystem. Case studies are provided to show the effectiveness of the developed testbed.