Impact of Electric Vehicles Botnets on the Power Grid

The increased penetration of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the transportation sector has increased the requirement of Fast Charging Direct Current (FCDC) stations to meet customer's speedy charging requirements. However, both charging stations and EVs connection to the communication infrastructure as well as the power grid makes it vulnerable to cyber attacks. In this paper, the vulnerability of the EV charging process is initially studied. We then show how a botnet of compromised EVs and FCDC stations can be utilized to launch cyber attacks on the power grid resulting in an increase in the load at a specific time. The effect of such attacks on the distribution network in terms of line congestion and voltage limit violations is investigated. Moreover, the effect of the botnet of the transmission network is also studied. Simulation results demonstrate the possibility of line failures, and power outage; and hence, the system's vulnerability to cyber attacks is established.