On the Feasibility of Market Manipulation and Energy Storage Arbitrage via Load-Altering Attacks

Juan Ospina (), David M. Fobes and Russell Bent
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Juan Ospina: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
David M. Fobes: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
Russell Bent: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Around the globe, electric power networks are transforming into complex cyber–physical energy systems (CPES) due to the accelerating integration of both information and communication technologies (ICT) and distributed energy resources. While this integration improves power grid operations, the growing number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) controllers and high-wattage appliances being connected to the electric grid is creating new attack vectors, largely inherited from the IoT ecosystem, that could lead to disruptions and potentially energy market manipulation via coordinated load-altering attacks (LAAs). In this article, we explore the feasibility and effects of a realistic LAA targeted at IoT high-wattage loads connected at the distribution system level, designed to manipulate local energy markets and perform energy storage (ES) arbitrage. Realistic integrated transmission and distribution (T&D) systems are used to demonstrate the effects that LAAs have on locational marginal prices at the transmission level and in distribution systems adjacent to the targeted network.

Keywords: AC optimal power flow; energy arbitrage; load-altering attack; market manipulation; nonlinear optimization (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: 2023
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