Enhancing the Survivability of Power Systems With Grid-Edge DERs Against DoS Attacks

Journal Article · Mon Oct 06 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · IEEE Access

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3618254· OSTI ID:3015749

Gao, Xue ^[1]; Sun, Wei ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States)

Power system survivability, defined as the ability of a system to maintain steady-state functionality under varying operational conditions, reflects its resilience against disturbances. While existing research primarily focuses on physical-layer disturbances, the increasing prevalence of grid-edge DERs, which are primarily used for integrating renewable energy, has significantly expanded the cyber attack surface. As a result, operational disruptions caused by cyber threats are posing significant challenges to system survivability and cannot be overlooked. To fill this gap, we redefine system survivability to incorporate the cyber layer’s status and propose a Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) approach to enhance power system survivability against potential cyber-physical threats. In this paper, we first analyze the operational guidelines of systems with a high penetration of DERs under various cyber network conditions and redefine survivability in this context. Next, we focus on the most common cyber threat, Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, and develop a corresponding attack model. This model allows for the creation of a kernel-based ambiguity set that captures attack uncertainties using historical data. Finally, we transform the proposed DRO model as a tractable optimization problem, with its solution providing an optimal cyber redundancy plan to enhance system survivability in DoS attack scenarios. Simulation results on the IEEE 13-node and 123-node test feeders demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model in improving system survivability. This model can also be expanded to include other types of common attacks and serve as a comprehensive planning tool to improve overall cyber physical survival of the system.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: EE0009339
• OSTI ID: 3015749
• Journal Information: IEEE Access, Journal Name: IEEE Access Vol. 13; ISSN 2169-3536
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

cybersecurity
denial-of-service attack
distributed energy resources
distributionally robust optimization
power system survivability