PRA for vulnerability assessment of power system infrastructure security

Abstract

Since September 11, 2001 the security of major national infrastructures has become a critical concern to government and industry. This paper reviews different types of threats (physical and cyber) and sources of these threats in electric power systems, describes the projects undertaken by the government and industry to address the security issues of the power system infrastructure, and presents a vulnerability assessment methodology for power networks. Finally, this paper considers probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methods and the challenges to PRA, and proposes the use of PRA in electric power system vulnerability assessment.