Cyber security — Securing the protection and control relay communication in substation

Abstract

Protection and control relays (also known as IEDs — Intelligent Electronic Devices), play a critical role in substation protection, control and monitoring functionalities. Smart grid deployments need the seamless flow of data between various devices like protection relays, controllers, gateways, smart meters etc. over private and public communication networks. These kind of deployments lead to inherent requirements for secure communication, strong user authentication and authorization to be considered in the design and development of protection and control relays. Securing relay communication is part of the Defense-In-Depth strategy which is essentially a layered security approach. It uses, multiple layers of network security along with secure architecture which is in-line with current and upcoming cyber security standards to protect the power system/substation automation network against intrusion from physical and cyber-borne attacks while connected to public and private networks. Ensuring confidentiality, integrity and authenticity is an integral part of securing data over the network. This can be achieved with strong authentication and usage of cryptographic protocols like “TLS”.