Real-time evaluation of cybersecurity threats to DER inverter grid-support functions

Technical Report · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2570193· OSTI ID:2570193

Gomez, Pablo ^[1]; Bhattacharjee, Shameek ^[1]

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1. Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)

In this project we aim to contribute to the understanding of the type and severity of potential cybersecurity attacks to the grid-support functionalities of DER systems interconnected to the AC distribution grid via inverters. Our preliminary work focused on developing a small-scale testbed allowing to study cybersecurity threats to an isolated photovoltaic-battery system using a real-time simulator (Typhoon HIL602+) with a real DNP3 communication connection over TCP/IP, allowing for safe and efficient monitoring and manipulation of data traffic between the simulated hardware and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. In this project we propose to expand upon this development by utilizing a) a recently acquired NovaCor RTDS (Real Rime digital Simulator) to emulate the DER-inverter-grid topology including main grid-support functions as defined by IEEE Std. 1547-2018, and b) an industrial control and automation device to enable realistic evaluation of control functions and utilization of communication protocols for real-time data transmission.

• Research Organization: Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)
• DOE Contract Number: CR0000029
• OSTI ID: 2570193
• Report Number(s): DOE-WMU--00029-11
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
DER
Distributed energy resources
cybersecurity
grid support
real-time testbed