Cyberattack on the Microgrids Through Price Modification

Abstract: Recent massive failures in the power grid acted as a wake up call for all utilities and consumers. This leads to aggressive pursue a more intelligent grid which addresses the concerns of reliability, efficiency, security, quality and sustainability for the energy consumers and producers alike. One of the many features of the smart grid is a discrete energy system consisting of distributed energy sources capable of operating independently from the main grid known as the microgrid. The main focus of the microgrid is to ensure a reliable and affordable energy security. However, it also can be vulnerable to cyber attack and we study the effect of price modification of electricity attack on the microgrid, given that they are able to operate independently from the main grid. This attack consists of two stages, 1) Separate the microgrids from the main grid (islanding) and 2) Failing the nodes inside the microgrid. Empirical results on IEEE Bus data help us evaluate our approach under various settings of grid parameters.