CAREER: Reliability and Resilience Assurance of Cyber-Physical Energy Systems

最近针对网络物理能源系统（CPESs）的网络攻击和侦察任务引起了人们对这些系统的安全性、可靠性和弹性的关注。随着在现代电力系统中部署新的通信、计算和控制技术的增加，将需要更复杂的工具来分析和防止系统层之间和系统层内部的故障和攻击传播。该项目的目标是加强CPESs对故障和攻击的防御，并教育未来的工程师了解未来电力系统面临的新型威胁以及加强这些威胁所需的工具。提出的研究包括以下几个关键领域：系统层的分类及其相互作用的表征；建立新的可靠度和弹性指标；开发先进的综合模型和方法来评估和提高CPESs的可靠性和弹性。拟议项目的影响远远超出了这些具体的研究领域。首先，近年来网络攻击和网络侦察任务日益增多，电网可靠性和弹性保障问题应运而生。其次，考虑到电网对国家经济和安全至关重要，停电和电网设备损坏的后果是严重的，加强电网抵御攻击和故障传播变得势在必行。除了这些大规模的贡献，拟议的研究承诺直接和实质性的教育影响，最显著的是通过开发新的课程，将几个项目方面纳入电力可靠性和弹性控制课程，加强研究生和本科生的研究计划，并创造新的学生指导和就业机会。这项研究将有助于建立CPESs设计、重建和数字化的科学和工程原则，以确保安全、可靠和有弹性的电力供应，并为未来的工程师提供必要的工具来操作和增强它们。虽然本提案的目标是加强CPESs抵御故障和潜在的网络和物理攻击，但提出的综合方法解决了未来电网的可靠性和弹性，并为与各种研究领域相关的问题提供了解决方案。预期结果将推进以下主题领域：(1)描述系统层和子层之间和内部的相互作用和内部作用；(2)建立一套可靠性和弹性指标，为电力和能源行业制定标准化和普遍接受的CPESs弹性指标和指标的目标做出贡献；(3)基于雪花发展理论，开发适合CPESs的可靠度和弹性评价的高效混合评价方法；(4)发展博弈论方法，以确定针对未知和不可预测的新兴威胁的主动防御解决方案。这里提出的研究将有助于发展一种变革性的数学框架和方法，这将通过直接的结果和通过促进进一步的研究解决方案，使目前阻碍CPESs硬化抵御灾难性故障和攻击的障碍成为可能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent cyber-attacks and reconnaissance missions on cyber-physical energy systems (CPESs) have contributed to concerns regarding these systems' security, reliability, and resilience. As the deployment of new communication, computation, and control technologies in modern power systems increases, more sophisticated tools will be required to analyze and prevent failure and attack propagations between and within system layers. The objective of this project is to harden CPESs against failures and attacks and to educate future engineers about the new types of threats to future power systems and required tools to strengthen them. The proposed research encompasses the following key areas: classification of system layers and characterization of their interactions; establishment of new reliability and resilience indices; and development of advanced comprehensive models and methods for reliability and resilience assessment and enhancement of CPESs. The impacts of the proposed project extend well beyond these specific research areas. First, the problem of reliability and resilience assurance in power grids is timely since cyber-attacks and network reconnaissance missions have been increasing in recent years. Second, given that power grids are critical to the nation's economy and security and that the consequences of blackouts and damaged grid equipment are severe, it is becoming imperative to harden them against attacks and failure propagation. In addition to these large-scale contributions, the proposed research promises a direct and substantial educational impact, most notably by developing new curriculum, incorporating several project aspects into power reliability and resilient control courses, enhancing graduate and undergraduate research programs, and creating new student mentorship and career opportunities. The proposed research will contribute to the establishment of science and engineering principles for the design, reconstruction, and digitization of CPESs to ensure a secure, reliable, and resilient power supply, and will equip future generations of engineers with the necessary tools to operate and enhance them.While the objective of this proposal is to harden CPESs against failures and potential cyber- and physical-attacks, the proposed integrative approach addresses the reliability and resilience of future power grids and provides solutions to problems related to various research domains. The anticipated outcomes will advance the following topic areas: (1) characterizing inter- and intra-actions between and within system layers and sub-layers; (2) establishing a set of reliability and resilience indices to contribute to the power and energy industry's goal of developing standardized and universally accepted resilience indices and metrics for CPESs; (3) developing efficient hybrid evaluation methods based on the snowflake development theory for reliability and resilience assessment that is amenable to CPESs; and (4) developing a game theoretic approach to determine proactive defense solutions against unknown and unpredicted emerging threats. The research proposed here will contribute to the development of a transformative mathematical framework and methodology that will enable - both through direct consequences and through promotion of further research solutions to hurdles that presently impede the hardening of CPESs against catastrophic failures and attacks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.