Impact of Cyber-Attacks on Power Grids with Distributed Energy Storage Systems

Power system cyber-attacks today have become a significant design concern. By initiating false commands and/or injecting false data into power grid controls, attackers can perturb a variety of system state and dynamics. With a rapidly evolving energy landscape and aggressive carbon reduction goals in many locations [1], distributed energy storage systems are likely to be broadly deployed in the future. Energy storage can be used for balancing power demands and managing increased variability from solar and wind resources, as well as increasingly widespread electric vehicle charging stations. In this paper, we study the impact of attacks on emerging power grids with widespread energy storage. Based on a theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we find that grids using widespread storage can lead to increased system vulnerabilities if not managed intelligently. Finally, we propose an approach for managing storage such that the overall grid is more resilient to attacks.