Cyber-Physical Real-Time Digital Simulation for Cybersecurity Analysis in Microgrids

The rapid power grid digitalisation is increas-ingly addressing the importance of a real-time and high-fidelity cyber-physical co-simulation platform, which en-ables risk-free validation before the real-world implementa-tion, especially for the cybersecurity research. Existing related works mainly focus on the impact analysis of attacksin massive power grid scenarios, while a thorough investigation regarding the implementation framework, cybersecurity analysis, and suitability assessment is lacking. To-wards this end, we first propose a general implementation framework for real-time leader-follower and time-steppedco-simulation schemes, which are used to establish twocyber-physical co-simulation platforms based on off-the-shelf power and communication simulators. Then, thorough cybersecurity studies are conducted to showcase therelations between co-simulation configurations such as thecommunication network topology and attack compatibility.Finally, a set of metrics derived from synchronization com-putational overhead, latency, simulation scalability, and at-tack compatibility is presented to assess the suitability ofa co-simulation platform for cybersecurity research. Rec-ommendations are given to provide guidelines for industrypractitioners and academia researchers in the establish-ment of cyber-physical co-simulation platforms that drivecybersecurity advancements.