Cybersecurity of distributed energy resource systems in the smart grid: A survey

Juanwei Chen, Jun Yan, Anthony Kemmeugne, Marthe Kassouf and Mourad Debbabi

Applied Energy, 2025, vol. 383, issue C, No S0306261925000947

Abstract: Distributed energy resources (DERs) are increasingly proliferating worldwide, driven by their benefits in promoting energy sustainability, efficiency, and resiliency. Coordinated approaches are crucial for aggregating diverse DERs across large areas, yet the increasing reliance on information technology exposes power systems to cyber attacks. What are the evolving cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and risks associated with integrating DERs in various applications? Moreover, how can a comprehensive defense-in-depth framework be developed to efficiently coordinate multiple stakeholders, ensuring DERs performance for power system operation against cyber attacks? To address these inquiries, this paper presents a comprehensive review of DER cybersecurity to assess its current status and identify research gaps. The review begins with an overview of DER systems and their cybersecurity risks based on the five-level hierarchical infrastructure established by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Subsequently, the study delves into current cybersecurity considerations from utilities and industries, examining requirements, guidelines/standards, and reference frameworks. The review further explores efforts in DER cyber risk analysis, mapping prominent vulnerabilities and attack schemes against different applications within the EPRI hierarchical architecture. The defense strategies proposed in the literature are also mapped, highlighting use cases for prevention, detection, and mitigation. Finally, analyzing research gaps and emerging technologies sheds light on critical DER cybersecurity issues and future research directions.

Keywords: Cybersecurity; Five-level hierarchical DER architecture; Multiple DER applications; Vulnerabilities and attacks; Defense strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925000947
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:383:y:2025:i:c:s0306261925000947

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125364

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().