An article by Oliver Küch and Anna Spiegel, Fraunhofer-Institut für Sichere Informationstechnologie SIT
Photovoltaic and wind energy plants that produce in a network are exposed to a wide range of risks. Even a minor disruption in IT or plant technology can have far-reaching consequences for functionality. In the SecDER research project, six partners from science and industry have investigated how the power system can become more resilient with virtual power plants.
The background to the need for research is the transformation of the energy system: In a decentralized energy system, many small and distributed plants work together and are jointly operated by a control system – the virtual power plant. The decentralized units communicate via a smart grid in real time and can become the target of cyber attacks in the process. Operation is also technically challenging: The plant park uses a wide variety of generation and storage technologies to optimize the use of sun, wind and storage in such a way that it results in a reliable and economical power supply.
In the future, the security of power supply will depend to a large extent on the resilience of virtual power plants.
A tool for IT security and smooth plant operation
What’s special about SecDER is that it takes an equal look at plant operations and data processing and bundles them into one application.
On this basis, a detection system for attacks and technical faults can then be set up in a virtual laboratory. This simulation environment can be used to virtually replicate the real behavior of the plants and test strategies for resilient defense against cyber attacks and technical faults at virtual power plants. These results will then be further developed in practice.
Attack detection and resilience
In SecDER, Fraunhofer SIT has developed strategies for detecting attacks on the IT of virtual power plants and for securing ongoing operations in the event of a successful attack. The researchers formulated recommendations for action for the resilient operation of VPP and incorporated their findings into a demonstrator. For example, they developed a Resilience Monitor, named “HealthDashboard”, where the relevant resilience information are summarized. Furthermore, they developed a Resilience Index, which measures the overall resilience of the VPP. “A particular focus is on ensuring that systems can continue to do their job – even in the event of an attack. Finally, we also ensure that the operators of such plants have means at their disposal that give them an advantage over attackers – we wanted to design systems in such a way that they can be brought into a trustworthy state at any time”, explains George Gkoktsis, researcher at Fraunhofer SIT.
Adapting existing ICT concepts to energy supply
Another focus of the research project is on various protection measures. Up to now, IT protection systems have been developed individually for each virtual power plant. As part of SecDER, common IT systems are to be adapted to the needs of the energy industry. In particular, this includes security requirements and standards for the platforms and networks used.
Systems for anomaly detection, which classify unusual behavior as an indication of an attack, are known from other applications. The aim was to investigate whether such systems can also increase security in the operation of virtual power plants. Machine learning concepts are already being used extensively. In practice, however, they are highly susceptible to interference. The aim of SecDER was therefore also to investigate Trustworthy AI. Researchers looked into Adversarial Machine Learning and how this can affect the VPP.
About SecDER
The research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and supported by Project Management Jülich, started on April 1, 2021, and was running for 36 months, it is currently being finalised. The total funding volume amounts to 2.7 million euros. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE) and for Secure Information Technology (SIT), as well as from Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, have been working together with companies in the industry to develop an information system for faults in decentralized power supply.
Further detailed results of the SecDER project will be published in the course of 2024.
Oliver Küch
Innovation Manager
Digital Hub Fraunhofer-Institut für
Sichere Informations-technologie SIT