Collaborative Research: ITR: Secure and Robust IT Architectures to Improve Survivability of the Power Grid

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 0325892/0326006 Title: Secure and Robust IT Architectures to Improve Survivability of the Power Grid Abstract: The communications architecture for today's electric power grid is designed to support a centralized control model developed for the vertically integrated, regulated power monopolies, each with complete control of a geographic area. However, in recent years deregulation has introduced many more participants on the grid. Together with a push for some measure of decentralized control, this and a proliferation of intelligent digital devices on the grid have made the management of the grid increasingly dependent on internet technology and networked computers, exposing the grid to a new threat: cyber-attacks. At the same time, deregulation has resulted in economic pressures to operate the grid with less safety margin, increasing the potential damage caused by disturbances and the need for better control, and more rigorous analysis behind that control, more crucial. The grid's already overtaxed information technology (IT) infrastructure does not have the ability to deliver information with the required quality of service and flexibility to meet the ever-changing security requirements of the evolving grid. The IT infrastructure needs to be made highly adaptive to ensure its survivability. Power researchers and engineers have detailed models of power dynamics on various geographic scales. However, none also incorporates other facets such as market factors, regulatory changes, and cyber-attacks that can affect the grid in different ways, and on different time scales. Because cyber-attacks target IT systems at their core, cyber-protection has to be an integral part of design. One fundamental contribution of this project comes from incorporating cybersecurity features in the modeling and decision making tools for relating the complex interactions among the physical, information, economic, and regulatory signals within the evolving electric power grid. The research is organized around three thrusts of activity which are being pursued interactively: I. Hybrid models of grid information technology, power dynamics, cyber-attacks, policy and markets. II. Distributed agent systems for flexible and adaptive control of the grid and its survivability. III. Robust and secure status dissemination middleware for new grid information technology architectures The electric power delivery system, the most critical of our critical infrastructures, is undergoing revolutionary changes. Successful completion of this research will contribute methodology, artifacts and knowledge to improve the security and efficiency of the power grid as it takes its new shape in coming years. This project sets the foundations of an ambitious collaborative research program between CMU and WSU, to address the complex issues associated with the modernization of the grid and its increasing reliance on an intelligent (i.e computerized) infrastructure.This collaborative research is structured as a long term interdisciplinary effort in which PhD students will acquire the kind of expertise this new phase of electricity generation and distribution calls for. In the short term, research tools are developed which can be used to compare different architectures for command and control of the grid and their survivability.