A concept for discrimination of electrical fault from cyber attack in smart electric grid

Abstract This letter proposes a concept to discriminate an electrical fault from a cyber attack in the modern power system. A cyber attack factor is introduced which may mislead the bus voltage stability virtually at load buses. The proposed cyber attack models are validated by executing multiple cyber attacks at a time on Western system coordinating council (WSCC) 9 bus test power system by using Siemens PSS/E and MATLAB softwares. Further, the impact of electrical fault and cyber attack on the WSCC 9 bus test power systems voltage stability has been analysed to develop a discrimination algorithm in reference to chosen load index. Despite its simplicity, the proposed discrimination algorithm is robust, accurate and quite suitable to develop intelligent measures for mal-operations against cyber attacks in the smart electric grid.