Mitigating Cybersecurity Risks in Grids With a High Penetration of Distributed Renewables

The increasing penetration of distributed renewables creates new threats to the optimal planning, management, and operation of the electric grid. In particular, new standards that mandate real-time visibility and communications to grid operations, coupled with supply-constrained inverter manufacturers, have exposed the electric grid to increased cyber risk and challenges to resiliency. Despite these developments, the electric industry must fully understand the emerging threats and develop a comprehensive and balanced approach to mitigation of the cyberattack risk by grid operators while maintaining the overall grid resiliency that connected and communicating renewables can provide. This study explores the impact of a coordinated cybersecurity attack on distributed renewables in the electric grid and proposes a novel approach to reduce the disruption of services to customers. This approach is anchored on a shift from centralised multi-party control to decentralised node-based control. It provides a starting point to address the overall framework for connecting, controlling, and securing distributed renewables, which can improve cybersecurity protection levels while maintaining the reliability of connected energy assets.