Future cyber-resilient renewable and sustainable smart grids: A critical review from power system researchers’ perspective on emerging threats and solutions

Abstract

The increasing integration of advanced digital technologies has transformed traditional power systems into smart grids, enhancing flexibility, efficiency, and sustainability. However, this digital transformation has also introduced cyber threats that pose serious risks to grid stability, reliability, and security. Traditionally, cybersecurity has been addressed from the perspectives of computer and communication engineering, and more recently, data science. While these approaches provide valuable insights, they overlook the dynamics of power systems and the intricate interdependencies between cyber and physical components. As cyberattacks affect the dynamic behavior of smart grids, the power system engineering community has become involved in addressing these threats through engineering-based approaches. From a power engineering perspective, the smart grid is an interconnected system, where system states are correlated. Cyberattacks that manipulate one or more of these states can disrupt these correlations. Although similar disruptions may arise from faults, the dynamic responses caused by faults and cyberattacks differ. Recent studies report that leveraging system dynamics knowledge enables detection of cyber-induced anomalies with over 99 % accuracy. This paper reviews existing solutions for detecting and mitigating cyber threats from power system researchers’ standpoint, highlighting the critical role of them in enhancing cyber resilience. However, many current cybersecurity solutions, developed in isolation within individual disciplines, face challenges in real-world deployment due to limited interoperability and integration. Therefore, to safeguard future power grids, this paper proposes a multidisciplinary approach that combines cybersecurity measures across computer science, data science, communication engineering, and power system engineering to ensure scalable, compatible, and effective defense mechanisms.