Vulnerability of Communication-Free Virtual Oscillator Controlled Next-Generation Grid Forming Inverters to Cyberattacks and its Mitigation

Overview

Arkansas Electric grid is rapidly transitioning from fossil-fuel-based centralized generation to inverter-based renewable- energy distributed generation. This necessitates the synchronized operation of a multitude of such inverters, which is growing exponentially with larger penetration of renewables, to prevent grid instability. Such synchronism is achieved conventionally using a communication-based coordination. In contrast, in virtual- oscillator-control-(VOC)-based grid-forming (GF) communication-free self-synchronizing inverters (CFSIs), no such inter-inverter communication is required. Hence, such inverters have gained traction because they enable decentralized operation and “apparently” reduce vulnerability to cyberattacks. While the VOC-based GF CFSIs preclude the need for inter-inverter data communication, each inverter is nonetheless self-synchronously coupled to the 60-Hz power grid and exchange energy over it that couples the CFSIs. This implies that, if the synchronism of even one VOC-based GF CFSI is affected, then, it compromises the synchronism/stability of the entire multi-CFSI power network. The VOC-based GF CFSI control relies on locally-sensed grid information. If this local information is tampered using side-channel noise intrusion (SNI), it may affect the synchronism of that CFSI and then propagate to other CFSIs over the network. Hence, in this research, we specifically investigate experimentally and theoretically the effect of SNI on the ability of a VOC-based GF CFSI to ensure a stable 60-Hz limit cycle and explore the impact of SNI on the parallel operation of such CFSIs to ensure synchronism to a common 60-Hz load frequency. Finally, we pursue a Kalman-filter estimation based pathway for mitigating the negative impacts of SNI on the CFSI dynamics and assessing its efficacy experimentally.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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