Grid SecurityImportant Breakthrough to Help Secure Electrical Grid

As the electrical grid is modernized, it requires new safeguards to keep it safe from cyberattackers. Researchers at Argonne have developed a novel security approach to find and stop cyberthreats that penetrate the IT layer, preserving grid stability.

For most of us, flipping a switch and seeing the lights come on doesn’t normally register a second thought. But for Bo Chen and Hyekyung Clarisse Kim, computational scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory who are working to make the electrical power grid more resilient to cyberattacks, it’s not something they ever take for granted.

The nation’s electrical grid has been called the most complex machine ever assembled, and its size and complexity make it vulnerable to major disruptions — from extreme weather, such as was seen in recent months in California and Texas, and from malicious attacks.

Chen and Kim, both of Argonne’s Energy Systems division, recently teamed with researchers at Hitachi ABB Power Grids, a leading global technology company. They developed a new security layer and decision framework — published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Power Systems — to help find and stop cyber threats, so the grid can continue operating even if there is an attack. Rather than taking a traditional IT-based approach, they instead considered the physics of the power grid.

“We know how the grid should operate, we know what signals it should be sending, because it’s all based on physics,” explained Kim. ​“So when we compare what it should look like to what it does look like, we can figure out if something is wrong.”

Chen and Kim’s work is part of a broader initiative overseen by Hitachi ABB Power Grids, under the auspices of the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), to protect high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines. HVDC functions like an electricity superhighway, playing a critical role in stabilizing the U.S. power grid against disturbances. And thanks to its ability to transmit power over long distances, it is vital for integrating renewable energies at scale.

But as the grid is modernized and HVDC-based applications are increasingly deployed, they become a growing target for malicious inside and outside cyberattackers, who may send erroneous commands that jeopardize grid stability.