Electric Power Grid Resilience to Cyber Adversaries: State of the Art

The smart electricity grids have been evolving to a more complex cyber-physical ecosystem of infrastructures with integrated communication networks, new carbon-free sources of power generation, advanced monitoring and control systems, and a myriad of emerging modern physical hardware technologies. With the unprecedented complexity and heterogeneity in dynamic smart grid networks comes additional vulnerability to emerging threats such as cyber attacks. Rapid development and deployment of advanced network monitoring and communication systems on one hand, and the growing interdependence of the electric power grids to a multitude of lifeline critical infrastructures on the other, calls for holistic defense strategies to safeguard the power grids against cyber adversaries. In order to improve the resilience of the power grid against adversarial attacks and cyber intrusions, advancements should be sought on detection techniques, protection plans, and mitigation practices in all electricity generation, transmission, and distribution sectors. This survey discusses such major directions and recent advancements from a lens of different detection techniques, equipment protection plans, and mitigation strategies to enhance the energy delivery infrastructure resilience and operational endurance against cyber attacks. This undertaking is essential since even modest improvements in resilience of the power grid against cyber threats could lead to sizeable monetary savings and an enriched overall social welfare.