Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

As power systems begin to integrate smart grid technologies, they are employing more modern electronic-interfaced clean energy resources, making power system performance and function increasingly dependent on information and communication technology (ICT). While these changes can and will solve some of the long-standing environmental and technological problems in power systems, they also bring new challenges, the primary one being cyber-physical security. This research program seeks to investigate and improve the resiliency of modern cyber-enabled distribution systems. The various characteristics of power-electronic interfaced resources have challenged the performance of some well-known protection and control schemes which are designed and used in traditional power systems. These challenges have not been thoroughly investigated, nor have the proposed solutions in the literature been fully examined. On the other hand, up to now, researchers have mainly focused on cyber vulnerabilities of transmission systems or distribution smart metering, while distribution systems have not been thoroughly investigated. The distributed nature, smaller size, complicated dynamics and private ownership of the modern resources in distribution systems can lead to more sophisticated attacks on the power system stability. The proposed research program aims to explore modern distribution systems on different levels. From a grid perspective, the program investigates smart communication-assisted protection systems in distribution systems to detect their cyber-physical vulnerabilities. On a higher level, the program examines the resiliency issues in interconnected grids. Multi-microgrids have attracted attention of researchers recently, have not been thoroughly investigated from resiliency point of view. The proposed research program will explore and detect their cyber-physical vulnerability for the first time. The program then evolves to design and propose novel secure-by-design protection schemes. The novelty and importance of the proposed research is not limited to vital topics which it explores. It also aims to extend the methodology of studying and improving smart grids. As ICT has provided an unprecedented amount of data, the proposed research seeks to utilize advanced data-analytic methods. Advanced artificial intelligent approaches will be examined to detect and mitigate intrusion in smart grids. These approaches will be used for both grid and inter-grid control mechanisms. Smart grids are the inevitable future of power systems in Canada and elsewhere, and their implementation will expose us to both new opportunities and new threats. The proposed research program deepens our understanding, reveals the vulnerabilities and enhances the power system resiliency, thereby benefiting the energy sector industry tremendously. It also improves the well-being of every Canadian by improving the resiliency of infrastructure and the national security of the country.