Modern Electric-Power Grids:

Components, Vulnerabilities, Threats, Cyber-

security Incidents

Ruben Saroukhanian

Nashville State Community College

Midterm PresentationJune 5, 2018

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Main Topics in This Presentation

• Modern Electric-Power Grid

o Infrastructure and Components

o Characteristics

o Cyber- and Physical Vulnerabilities of Modern Power

Grids

• Threats and Defenses

• Power Service Disruptions and Associated Costs

• Cybersecurity Incidents Historical Cases

• Original Sources

Modern Electric-Power Grids

North American Electric-Power Delivery System is Complex Consisting of thousands of components and entities such as

Power stations

Transformers

Capacitors banks

Line reactors

Reclosers

Controls; manual and automated

Transmission lines (215,000 miles in North America)

5,000 corporate organizations

100 million consumers, clients, customers

US power delivery system is the largest complicated machinery Consists of five regions also know as interconnections:

o Eastern

o Western

o Texas

o Quebec and

o Alaska

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Infrastructure & Components

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Interconnections

Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nercmap.JPG

Modern Electric-Power Grid – A Simplified View

Retrieved from website at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electricity_grid_simple-_North_America.svg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2

/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Patterson, Great Falls Hydro-Electric Power Plant

Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paterson_great_falls_powerplant.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2

/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Alma Coal Burning Power Plant on Mississippi River

Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Alma_Wisconsin_Coal_power_plants.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2

/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee

Retrieved from: Wikimedia Commons website at

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Sequoyah_Nuclear_Power_Plant.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2

/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid – Shiloh IV Wind Farm in Solano Country, California

Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Shiloh_IV_Wind_Turbines_at_Sunset.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2

/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grids Power Plants in the United States

Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Power_plants_map.png

Modern Electric-Power Grid – High Voltage Transmission Line, Auburn, WA

Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/High_voltage_transmission_tower_and_lines._Auburn_WA.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid Power Distribution Pole

Retrieved from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Lone_Power_Distribution_Pole_-_geograph.org.uk_-_399242.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grid Power Substation, Amity, OR

Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Power_sub_station_near_Amity_Oregon.JPG

Modern Electric-Power Grid Pole-Mounted Transformers

Retrieved fromhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Single-phase-pole-transformer-d335.jpg, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Pole_Transformer.JPG and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pole_mounted_transformer_1.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grids Capacitors Banks

Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Condensor_bank_150kV_-_75MVAR.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grids Line Reactors at Noxon Rapids Dam, Montana

Retrieved fromhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NoxonReactor.jpg, Author: VARsity

Modern Electric-Power Grids Cutout Fuse

Retrieved from: Wikimedia Commons website at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Cutout_fuse.jpg

Modern Electric-Power Grids Substation in Warren, MN

Retrieved from: Wikimedia Commons website at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Electrical_Substation.JPG

Additional layers of complexity are added by these layers Cyber Layer

Modern Electric-Power Grids Complexity Cyber Layer

Additional layers of complexity are added by these layers Communications Layer

Modern Electric-Power Grids Complexity Communications Layer

Additional layers of complexity are added by these layers Control Layer

Modern control systems are indirectly connected to the Internet, (Amin, 15)

ISOs could be sending increased orders from ISOs over the Internet to

purportedly disconnected from Internet power generators

There are a number of “documented attacks and intrusions” since 2002, (Amin,

15)

Amin notes that “human response has become inadequate” to resist malware

attacks against control systems

Any telecommunications – that is not under control of operator’s (power plant,

SCADA systems, etc.) is a potential pathway into the operations of the

organization and a threat to the transmission grid

Modern Electric-Power Grids Complexity Control Layer

Cyber Layer

Modern Electric-Power Grids Characteristics Complexity

Cyber Layer

Communications Layer

Modern Electric-Power Grids Characteristics Complexity

Communications Layer

Control Layer Control Layer

Modern Electric-Power Grids Characteristics Complexity

Control Layer

Embedded electronic automation with no or little security built in as a part of design

creates risks for operational security and systems, Amin, p. 14_

Power systems exposure to risk has increased as these have become more dependent

on computerized communications and computerized control systems.

Controls systems were designed to work within proprietary stand-alone networks; these networks

get connected to the Internet without additional components to assure securityo Extreme weather event frequency and impact has been on the rise and that can

impact ICT components.

Amin concludes that “...any link outside organizations control represents a pathway into

operations and threat to large transmission grid...” Still there are semi-insulated proprietary networks with power utility companies. However, for

instance, relays being digitally controlled.

This to me means some sort of user ethernet networks/internet?

Modern Electric-Power Grids Vulnerabilities

Questions and Answers

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1. Sorebo, G., Echols, M., (2012) Smart Grid Security: An End-to-End View of Security in the New

Electric Grid, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group [Book]

2. Amin, S.M. (2010, Spring). Securing the Electricity Grid. The Bridge, 13 – 20 [Magazine Article]

3. Source(s) on the Communications Layer

4. Source(s) on the Control layer: Barreto, C at al (November/December 2014), Control Systems for the

Power Grid and Their Resiliency to Attacks, Energy Control Systems, IEEE Security and Privacy

Sources

Acknowledgements

This work was supported primarily by the ERC Program of the

National Science Foundation and DOE under NSF Award Number

EEC-1041877.

Other US government and industrial sponsors of CURENT

research are also gratefully acknowledged.

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