Improving cyber-physical-power system stability through hardware-in-loop co-simulation platform for real-time cyber attack analysis

With advancements in communication systems and measurement technologies, smart grids have become more observable and controllable, evolving into cyber-physical-power systems (CPPS). The impact of network security and secondary equipment on power system stability has become more evident. To support the existing grid toward a smart grid scenario, smart metering plays a vital role at the customer end side. Cyber-Physical systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and various techniques have been evolved to detect a cyber attack in the smart grid. Weighted trust-based models are suggested as one of the most effective security mechanisms. A hardware-in-loop CPPS co-simulation platform is established to facilitate the theoretical study of CPPS and the formulation of grid operation strategies. This paper examines current co-simulation platform schemes and highlights the necessity for a real-time hard-ware-in-the-loop platform to accurately simulate cyber-attack processes. This consideration takes into account the fundamental differences in modeling between power and communication systems. The architecture of the co-simulation platform based on RT-LAB and OPNET is described, including detailed modeling of the power system, communication system, and security and stability control devices. Additionally, an analysis of the latency of the co-simulation is provided. The paper focuses on modeling and implementing methods for addressing DDOS attacks and man-in-the-middle at-tacks in the communication network. The results from simulating a 7-bus system show the effectiveness and rationality of the co-simulation platform that has been designed.