Command Authentication Using Multiagent System for Attacks on the Economic Dispatch Problem

Over the past decade, cyberattack events on the electricity grid are rising and have severely impacted grid operation. These attacks are becoming more intelligent as they can falsify critical data and bypass existing protection protocols. This could result in the system to operate in a nonoptimal condition and suffer substantial economic losses over a prolonged period. Hence, it is crucial to develop tools to defend the system against such attacks to minimize the cost of malicious operations. This article aims to develop a novel command authentication strategy to detect and mitigate false data injection attacks (FDIAs) targeting the system centralized economic dispatch (ED) control signals. First, we describe the ED problem based on Singapore’s deregulated market context. We then perform a risk assessment and formulate a stealthy FDIA vector targeting the ED control signals. Subsequently, we propose a novel authentication technique leveraging on the multiagent system, which includes detection and mitigation algorithms to verify the ED control commands. Last, we evaluate the efficiency and latency of the proposed technique on the 5-bus, 3-generating unit, and 15-generating unit test system. Simulation and experiment results using a real-time hardware-in-the-loop system proves that the authentication technique can detect and mitigate the stealthy FDIA vector with high accuracy.