2022/08/31 by Bo Tu, Tu, Bo, Wen-Tai Li +3
Computer Science · Engineering · #Blockchain Technology Applications and Security #FOS: Electrical engineering #Smart Grid Energy Management #Smart Grid Security and Resilience #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2208.14672
openalex publication_date 2022/08/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
This work studies the potential vulnerability of distributed control schemes in smart grids. To this end, we consider an optimal inverter VAR control problem within a PV-integrated distribution network. First, we formulate the centralized optimization problem considering the reactive power priority and further reformulate the problem into a distributed framework by an accelerated proximal projection method. The inverter controller can curtail the PV output of each user by clamping the reactive power. To illustrate the studied distributed control scheme that may be vulnerable due to the two-hop information communication pattern, we present a heuristic attack injecting false data during the information exchange. Then we analyze the attack impact on the update procedure of critical parameters. A case study with an eight-node test feeder demonstrates that adversaries can violate the constraints of distributed control scheme without being detected through simple attacks such as the proposed attack.