Physical Security Threat Assessment and Resource Investment Allocation for Electric Power Substations

Nawaraj Kumar Mahato, Jiaxuan Yang, Junfeng Yang, Ren Qiang, Gangjun Gong () and Jianhong Hao ()
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Nawaraj Kumar Mahato: Beijing Engineering Research Center of Energy Electric Power Information Security, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Jiaxuan Yang: Beijing Engineering Research Center of Energy Electric Power Information Security, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Junfeng Yang: Beijing Engineering Research Center of Energy Electric Power Information Security, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Ren Qiang: Beijing Engineering Research Center of Energy Electric Power Information Security, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Gangjun Gong: Beijing Engineering Research Center of Energy Electric Power Information Security, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Jianhong Hao: School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: Ensuring the physical security of electric power substations is crucial for maintaining a reliable supply of electricity. The increasing prevalence of physical threats, such as physical attacks, vandalism, sabotage, etc., on electric power substations worldwide has resulted in widespread power outages. To enhance physical security in light of these high-impact, low-probability events, this paper proposes a physical security threat assessment approach to evaluate and enhance substation security against physical attacks utilizing the Substation Criticality Index (SCI) and the Threat–Vulnerability–Consequences Index (TVCI) on risk-based security-constrained economic dispatch. The primary objective is to provide power utilities with actionable insights to proactively strengthen their defenses within budgetary constraints by considering the criticality level of each substation. By incorporating social, economic, and electrical factors, this study simulated a physical attack (specifically a bus-isolating attack), on an IEEE 39-bus test system, and evaluated the resultant consequences and load loss. Upon computation of the SCI, substations are ordered according to their criticality, and computing the TVCI gives the risk of each substation which is used to obtain an optimized physical security investment based on substation vulnerability and the consequences of attacks. Thus, based on these results, decisions for prioritizing substation physical security and investments for hardening physical security are made. Furthermore, the experimentation showed that with the physical security investment, the overall TVCI score has significantly decreased with certain budgetary constant.

Keywords: electric power substation; physical security threat assessment; substation criticality index; threat–vulnerability–consequence index; resource investment allocation (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: 2025
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