CPGrid-OT: Cyber-Power Data Generation Using Real-Time Reconfigurable Testbed for Resiliency

Abstract

This paper presents a real-time reconfigurable Cyber-Power Grid Operation Testbed (CPGrid-OT) with multi-vendor, industry-grade hardware and software. The developed testbed allows reconfigurability to some extent by offering flexibility to: a) use for transmission or distribution system simulation, b) easily exchange data with diverse platforms interchangeably using standard data interface protocols, and integration of local/cloud data storage, c) integrate adaptive communication network configuration with software-defined networking (SDN) and, d) perform hardware-in-the-loop experimentation with exchangeable devices using no-wire interfacing. Through CPGrid-OT, we discuss in detail cyber-power data generation, storage, and processing at multiple levels of the testbed. We then demonstrate two use cases with CPGrid-OT - (1) we implement coordinated cyber attacks, similar to GridEx. A step-by-step attack emulation timeline is provided that shows how attackers can compromise the system to adversely impact the power grid. For each step, we show how the generated data from CPGrid-OT can be utilized for resiliency analysis and incident response; (2) we further demonstrate how the generated data can be used to validate advanced tools such as CP-TRAM and SyncAD. Due to the lack of realistic cyber attack data available in the public domain, we provide high-resolution real-time data from both the cyber and power layers of our testbed to help spur the development and validation of cyber-power resiliency tools for future researchers.