Cybersecurity Study of Power System Utilizing Advanced CPS Simulation Tools

​The evolution of traditional electric grids toward “smarter” grids involves the deployment of novel wide-area and/or local communication infrastructure to facilitate new applications, such as advanced protection and control (P&C),  Energy  Management Systems  (EMS),  Microgrid Control Systems (MGCS), Wide-Area
Protection, Monitoring and Control System (WAMPACS), and distributed control. These communication-based applications, however,  introduce new  risks due to their  increased dependency on communication infrastructure,  which is susceptible to cyber  threats  [1]. In  addition, the participation of prosumers
(producers/consumers) at the distribution level may also expose the grid to cyber vulnerabilities.   This is since  prosumers  will  likely  be interconnected  to the main grid  through  a  shared  communication infrastructure, causing more potential cyber risk.  Thus, it is important to study the grid along with its communication systems as  a whole Cyber-Physical System (CPS) to evaluate potential risks of critical failure and blackouts.