Sponsor: San Diego Section Chapter, PEL35
Speaker: Anto Joseph, San Diego Stare University

Meeting Date: March 24, 2021
Time: 6:30PM
Cost:
Reservations: IEEE

Summary:
Currently, distribution power system (DPS) is shifting towards modernization with the inclusion of remote monitoring, communication and control. This intelligent communication provides many benefits to the DPS including efficient transmission, quick restoration of power, lower electricity rates, and customer participation, etc. Recently, IEEE 1547:2018 recommends that active and reactive power of distributed energy resources (DER) can be either controlled by distribution system operators, aggregators (third parties), and digital communication from consumers, etc.

Relatively remote control of DER units improves the performance of the DPS over the autonomous control. Nevertheless, presently more cyberattacks have been reported at remote communication control in the various parts of the power system and cause the grid blackout. Example, In Dec 2015, unprecedented cyberattacks on the distribution substations in Ukraine affected the 1.4 million peoples without electricity for 6 h. Similarly, cyberattacks could happen in remote control in DER units and lead to threatening the DPS considering grid security and reliability. In addition, it is noted that DER units typically do not support security features including encryption in all the controls due to the limited processing capabilities and high cost equipment.

In this presentation, we will first look at the effects on DPS during cyber-attacks on active and reactive power control in the DER units, especially at IEEE grid support functions. Then we will show that how to protect the active/reactive power control values in DER units, also maintaining the stability of the DPS during the changes in such values. Then, we will discuss results of the above scenarios through 140-bus Southern California power distribution system via an extensive time-domain simulation approach. Finally, more reliable techniques are discussed for future research on cyber security in DER units.

Bio: Anto Joseph is a post-doctoral researcher in sustainable power and energy research center at San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA. He was previously a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Irvine from Dec 2018 to Dec 2020. He received the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India on July 2018 in the field of power electronics in renewable energy systems.

His current research interests include cyber-attacks on distributed energy resources, voltage control and security in power distribution system, fault diagnosis & fault tolerant operation of power electronic converters. He has published more than 15 articles in the various peer reviewed journals and conferences.