Cyber–physical attacks on power distribution systems

• Main Authors: Abdelrahman Ayad, Hany Farag, Amr Youssef, Ehab El-Saadany
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020-02-01
• Series: IET Cyber-Physical Systems
• Subjects: state estimation; load flow control; distribution networks; power distribution; distributed power generation; power system security; power system state estimation; power distribution control; load flow; distributed energy resources; additional power injection; cyber–physical attacks; power distribution systems; stealthy false data injection; corrupt the state estimation operation; fdi attacks; distribution systems optimal power flow; system operator losses; branch current state estimation method; dsopf model; ieee 34-bus unbalanced radial distribution system; time 24.0 hour
• Online Access: https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/iet-cps.2019.0032

This study investigates the impacts of stealthy false data injection (FDI) attacks that corrupt the state estimation operation of power distribution systems (PDS). In particular, the authors analyse FDI attacks that target the integrity of distribution systems optimal power flow (DSOPF) in order to maximise the system operator losses. The branch current state estimation method is implemented to accurately model the PDS, and convex relaxations are applied to the DSOPF model. The effects of the FDI attacks are analysed on the IEEE 34-bus unbalanced radial distribution system, with distributed energy resources (DERs) along the feeder. A 24 h DSPOF is performed, and the results depict the changes in the voltage profile and the additional power injection from the DERs, which consequently lead to the increase of the DSOPF cost.