A concept for discrimination of electrical fault from cyber attack
in smart electric grid

Aniruddha Agrawal – Shaik Affijulla

   This letter proposes a concept to discriminate an electrical fault from a cyber attack in the modern power system. A cyber attack factor is introduced which may mislead the bus voltage stability virtually at load buses. The proposed cyber attack models are validated by executing multiple cyber attacks at a time on Western system coordinating council (WSCC) 9 bus test power system by using Siemens PSS/E and MATLAB softwares. Further, the impact of electrical fault and cyber attack on the WSCC 9 bus test power system's voltage stability has been analysed to develop a discrimination algorithm in reference to chosen load index. Despite its simplicity, the proposed discrimination algorithm is robust, accurate and quite suitable to develop intelligent measures for mal-operations against cyber attacks in the smart electric grid.

Keywords: cyber attack, electrical fault, grid operator, load index, smart grid, voltage stability

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