Analysis of cascading failures of power cyber-physical systems considering false data injection attacks

Abstract

This study considers the performance impacts of false data injection attacks on the cascading failures of a power cyber-physical system, and identifies vulnerable nodes. First, considering the monitoring and control functions of a cyber network and power flow characteristics of a power network, a power cyber-physical system model is established. Then, the influences of a false data attack on the decision-making and control processes of the cyber network communication processes are studied, and a cascading failure analysis process is proposed for the cyber-attack environment. In addition, a vulnerability evaluation index is defined from two perspectives, i.e., the topology integrity and power network operation characteristics. Moreover, the effectiveness of a power flow betweenness assessment for vulnerable nodes in the cyber- physical environment is verified based on comparing the node power flow betweenness and vulnerability assessment index. Finally, an IEEE14-bus power network is selected for constructing a power cyber-physical system. Simulations show that both the uplink communication channel and downlink communication channel suffer from false data attacks, which affect the ability of the cyber network to suppress the propagation of cascading failures, and expand the scale of the cascading failures. The vulnerability evaluation index is calculated for each node, so as to verify the effectiveness of identifying vulnerable nodes based on the power flow betweenness.