Mitigating the impact of cyber attacks suach a load altering attacks

Abstract

Modern power systems are constantly exposed to cyberattacks that threaten to disable them and cause serious damage and even destruction. The cyber threat factor is nowadays on a par with such traditional threats as natural disasters, fires, and other destructive phenomena. Therefore, cyber threats raise the question of considering protection against them as a factor of power system sustainability necessary for survival, which should now be considered in the context of cyber resilience. This paper considers the issue of finding a solution to mitigate the harmful effects on the power system of one of the types of cyberattacks, namely, Load Altering Attacks (LAA). The danger of such an attack is that, taking advantage of the weak protection of a large number of IoT clients, an attacker can conduct a coordinated attack on a large number of compromised clients and suddenly change the load in the power grid. As a result, not only users will suffer, but also the basic equipment of the power grid itself, in particular, power generators. This paper proposes a solution that, by optimizing the regulator mode of the power generator, can significantly mitigate the harmful effects of LAA attacks.