Secure Communication Modeling for Microgrid Energy Management System: Development and Application

Taha Selim Ustun and S. M. Suhail Hussain
Additional contact information
Taha Selim Ustun: Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), Koriyama 963-0298, Japan
S. M. Suhail Hussain: Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA), Koriyama 963-0298, Japan

Energies, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: As the number of active components increase, distribution networks become harder to control. Microgrids are proposed to divide large networks into smaller, more manageable portions. The benefits of using microgrids are multiple; the cost of installation is significantly smaller and renewable energy-based generators can be utilized at a small scale. Due to the intermittent and time dependent nature of renewables, to ensure reliable and continuous supply of energy, it is imperative to create a system that has several generators and storage systems. The way to achieve this is through an energy management system (EMS) that can coordinate all these generators with a storage system. Prior to on-site installation, validation studies should be performed on such controllers. This work presents a standardized communication modeling based on IEC 61850 that is developed for a commercial microgrid controller. Using commercial software, different terminals are set up as intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and the operation of the EMS is emulated with proper message exchanges. Considering that these messages transmit sensitive information, such as financial transactions or dispatch instructions, securing them against cyber-attacks is very important. Therefore; message integrity, node authentication, and confidentiality features are also implemented according to IEC 62351 guidelines. Real-message exchanges are captured with and without these security features to validate secure operation of standard communication solution.

Keywords: IEC 61850; power system communication; cybersecurity; energy management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/1/68/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/1/68/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2019:i:1:p:68-:d:300756

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().