A Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Cybersecurity Testbed for Power Electronics Devices and Systems in Cyber-Physical Environments

Cybersecurity of power electronics (PE) is increasingly essential as more systems from renewable energy systems, energy storage systems, and electric vehicle charging stations utilize PE devices to connect them into power grids with complex communication and computation systems for advanced control and situational awareness improvement in smart grid environments. However, cybersecurity research and development (R&D) of networked power electronics (PE) is hampered by the lack of real-time security testbed incorporating real cyber events. This paper proposes a real-time hardware-in-the-loop cybersecurity tested for PE systems in cyber-physical environments. The proposed security testbed consists of: 1) a real-time PE system simulator; 2) a real-time cyber system using real network systems and a server; and 3) penetration testing tools generating real cyber-attacks as cyber events. Several real cyber-attacks are created and their impacts in a PE system are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed security testbed.