A survey on security assessment of metering infrastructure in Smart Grid systems

Abstract

Effective integration of renewable energy resources, energy management and better usage of the high voltage transmission system are major motivating forces for an improved electric grid regularly called the Smart Grid. Along with the soundless features of the Smart Grid, cyber security appears to be a serious issue because many electronic devices are connected via communication networks throughout critical power services, which has a direct impact on the reliability of such a common infrastructure. An assessment of cyber security topics in the Smart Grid is presented in this paper especially, security necessities of AMI, network vulnerabilities, attack countermeasures, secure communication protocols and architectures in the Smart Grid. Cyber-attacks against the power grid may aim to disrupt operations modifying or inserting messages. For example, malicious entities might change the set points at outstation devices, by pretending to be a master device at a control center, and cause instability in the grid. Satisfactory protection contains authenticating both the devices and control commands.