Cyber-physical strategies for generator coherency in the face of malicious attack

The modern electric grid is rapidly evolving into a diverse system composed of cyberphysical entities such as distributed energy sources (DERs), data concentrators, and phasor measurement units (PMUs) that allow for intelligent actuation and active monitoring. Cyber-physical integration not only enables enhanced grid security and adaptive resilience but also promotes sustainable grid operations. Security is paramount in a system that is as tightly coupled as the grid. Without appropriate security mechanisms in place, failures in the grid can rapidly propagate vertically and result a catastrophic system-wide collapse which will be very expensive to recover from. Although cyber-physical entities in the grid are used primarily to mitigate threats, if existing communication vulnerabilities in the cyber components are not appropriately administered, these can be leveraged by adversaries to gain unauthorized access to highly sensitive physical grid components which can then be maneuvered to inflict serious damage to the grid. As such, we present two attack-mitigation approaches inspired by biology and differential games that actively engage uncompromised cyber-physical entities to restore system coherency in the face of malicious cyber attacks.