A behavioral model to detect data manipulation attacks of synchrophasor measurements

Abstract

Synchrophasor technology contributes significantly to the power system transformation into smart grid since it enables the wide area monitoring and control concept. At the same time, its integration to the smart grid imposes new cyber security challenges in these cyber-physical systems. The key element of the synchrophasor technology is the Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) which provides synchronized measurements to the control center with a fast reporting rate. The PMU measurements are kept in a Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) which collects and time aligns measurements from different PMUs. The communication between PMUs and PDC is defined by the synchrophasor communication standard, C37.118.2-2011, which lacks security mechanisms and hence it is vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Consequently, an intrusion detection system (IDS) that can detect PMU measurement manipulation is necessary to maintain the integrity and reliability of the PMU measurements. In this paper, a Synchrophasor Specific Intrusion Detection System that utilizes a PMU's behavioral model to detect data manipulation attacks against PMU measurements is proposed. The proposed IDS approach is tested and validated using a hardware in the loop setup for power systems considering an actual PMU.