Cyber Threat Analysis on Network Communication in Power System and Countermeasures Suggestions

The Energy Management System (EMS) communicates with power plants and substations, monitors the substations and plant operational status of the transmission and substation system for stability, continuity, real-time, and economy of power supply, and controls power plants and substations. Currently, the power exchange EMS communicates with power plants and substations based on the serial communication-based Distributed Network Protocol (DNP) 3.0 protocol. However, problems such as the difficulty of supply and demand of serial communication equipment and the lack of installation space for serial ports and modems are raised due to the continuous increase in new facilities to perform communication, including renewable power generation facilities. Therefore, this paper presents a TCP/IP-based communication method instead of the existing serial communication method of the power exchange EMS, and presents a security risk analysis that may occur due to changes in the communication method and a countermeasure to the security risk.