Incorporation of Blockchain Technology in Various Smart Grids

 Incorporation of Blockchain Technology in Various Smart Grids

Introduction

Electricity has been delivered from generating to user end via a one-directional conventional grid system for over a century. However, as human civilization advances, more fossil fuel-powered power plants are employed, resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the power grid has evolved into a very complex system. Cascade failures are also more common in this new environment. In the recent decade, there have been several big blackouts throughout the world. A smart grid is an electrical network that supports renewable energy sources, smart distribution, and dynamic load shedding. These traits also aid in the prevention of cascade failures. 

A large amount of information on the grid's markets, service providers, and operations must be managed. In other words, a smart grid, as seen in Figure 1, is a highly decentralized and organized communication network used to convey and analyze data. Wireline and wireless communication technologies, as previously described, are utilized in combination in a smart grid to simplify power transfer and control. A SCADA system's goal is to monitor the state of a power grid at both the transmission and distribution levels. Instead, data is routed across the network via a series of utility gateways.

Figure 1 depicts the smart grid infrastructure from generation to consumption.

The electrical grid is rapidly evolving as alternative energy sources, quicker signal processors, better sensors, and other technologies gain prominence. A two-way flow of data and energy between power providers and customers is now required. As a result, the traditional power grid is being replaced by a smart grid (SG), which is a system that can dynamically monitor and regulate electricity flow, providing consumers with steady power. To accomplish these major informatization-related benefits, smart grid incorporates computer, communication, and sensor technology into current power grid networks. SG applications include energy management systems (EMS), electric vehicles (EVs), microgrids (MGs), smart cities (SCs), home automation (HA), and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

SG enhances power supply dependability and makes a variety of complicated and demanding applications a possibility. In this complex network, several entities in the grid perform transactions at the same time. Verifying the legitimacy of the business relations between the parties to a given SG application is a big concern. Blockchain technology provides a secure and viable solution to this problem. Satoshi Nakamoto's innovation of blockchain technology promotes consensus on the validity of a transaction and keeps everyone involved honest.

Figure 2: The number of articles about blockchain and smart grids.

Table 1 shows a summary of some review articles on smart grid applications.

In contrast to the previous research papers, this article takes a more comprehensive approach to the specific use of blockchain technology to the SG sector. Furthermore, the current study describes the foundation for SG applications that employ blockchain technology. SG might be beneficial in a variety of applications, including electric cars, enhanced metering infrastructure, microgrids, and home automation. Various challenges to smart grid privacy and security are also highlighted, as are countermeasures.

The paper is divided into the following sections. Section 2 covers the principles of a blockchain, including numerous terminologies and concepts linked with blockchain technology. Section 3 discusses applications in the SG domain that leverage blockchain technology, as well as the designs of numerous apps and their difficulties and solutions. Section 4 discusses cybersecurity and cyberattacks in smart grids, as well as countermeasures, while Section 5 discusses the significance of blockchain in smart grids and Section 6 concludes our investigation.

2. Blockchain Overview

Blockchain technology has grown in popularity in recent years. When it was initially developed for digital money use, blockchain was classified as a cryptocurrency. Blockchain was formerly assumed to be Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency. However, blockchain is what drives these digital currencies. It is a decentralized transaction ledger that may be used by several parties. Researchers were originally skeptical about this technology, but Bitcoin's success eventually changed them. Following 2016, there was a significant growth in the number of blockchain applications and usage in many technical domains. Financial services, medical care, manufacturing, and other industries have made extensive use of blockchain.

Blockchain is a sequence of blocks of transactions in which multiple administrators supervise the operation of traditional client/server systems. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer network in which all users have equal influence over the network's direction and operation. This network is made up of several computers, or nodes, and the blocks in the chain cannot be changed without the network's permission. Each node in the network stores a copy of the centralized database. The type of blockchain utilized will be determined by the characteristics of a given use case. The three basic types of blockchain are public  blockchains, private blockchains, and consortium blockchains. There are three sorts of blockchains: public, private, and consortium. No one has authority on a public or permission less blockchain. Users are not prohibited from reading or writing to the network. Private or permissioned ledgers, on the other hand, are unavailable to anybody who is not logged in to the network as an authorized user.

The blocks are illegible because they are encrypted with a key. The public and private blockchain models are both represented in consortium blockchains. In contrast to centralized systems, the nodes in a blockchain network decentralized validate transactions among themselves. Once a transaction has been validated by the nodes and published to the blockchain, it cannot be reversed since the network nodes' identity remains unanimous. As a result, the data saved on the blockchain cannot be changed.

While blockchain technology has showed promise in terms of constructing a stronger Internet infrastructure for the future, there are still a number of concerns that must be addressed. Because blockchain development is still in its early stages, having access to educated personnel is critical. Businesses are naturally cautious about the high upfront infrastructure costs involved with BCT adoption, despite the technology's numerous promising applications. The growth of blockchain technology is also influenced by privacy and security concerns. Legal issues and the difficulties of scaling it up are other important problems.

Blockchain Terminologies and Components

The terminology used to characterize the key components of a blockchain are defined below:

Block: Blocks in a blockchain are represented using pointers and linked lists. A linked list is used to align blocks and organize them into a logical structure. A block is a collection of data generated by a secure hash algorithm that contains transaction information like as timestamps and references to previous blocks. Pointers indicate the location of the following block. Every block has two parts: the block header and the block content. The following fields comprise the block header:

• Block version: it specifies the validation requirements for blocks.

• Merkle tree root hash: this hashing technique computes the overall hash value of all transactions in the frame.
• Timestamp: it is in seconds in universal time, as of January 1, 1970.

• n-Bits: the maximum size of a block hash.

• Nonce: a 4-byte field that starts at 0 and rises by one with each hash computation.

• Parent block hash: The preceding block's 256-bit hash value is commonly referred to as the parent block hash.

Public and private keys: Blockchain is an ever-expanding system of interconnected, cryptographically protected blocks. To validate transactional authentication, blockchain employs an asymmetric key method. A private key is used to encrypt the transactions in a block. These transactions are available to all network nodes. These nodes can decrypt the data when employing a public key that is accessible to all nodes in the network.

Every block contains a cryptographic hash that is linked to the previous block. Hashing creates a fixed-length string to specify a piece of data. The length of the string is independent of the amount of the data.

Consensus procedure: To validate new blocks, a set of standards and agreement from all network users are utilized. Consensus is essential to determine whether or not a block is legitimate. A variety of solutions are available for the consensus mechanism, including realistic byzantine fault tolerance, proof of labor, and proof of stake.

Smart contracts are computer programs that operate automatically on a blockchain network and manage transactions between scattered nodes.

3. Blockchain Operations for Smart Grid Applications

Blockchain technology has the ability to dramatically change existing applications by increasing trust and enabling more decentralization. Despite its growing popularity, the benefits it provides are not completely utilized by SG applications. The overall number of blockchain papers produced from the perspective of various SG applications is 41% for energy management systems, 19% for microgrids, 24% for electric cars, 14% for home automation, and 2% for AMI. These figures were compiled using Scopus, and only journal publications were analyzed. Blockchain is widely utilized in SGs for energy management purposes. Blockchain technology is also being used in electric cars, enhanced metering infrastructure, microgrids, home automation, and smart cities.

3.1. Home Automation Using Blockchain

Conduction losses are described by a current's resistance and RMS value. The end result is a smart house, which is an IoT-enabled domicile that improves the quality of life in a variety of ways, including safety, healthcare, enjoyment, and convenience. Home technology has increased people's independence and enhanced their quality of life. Smart homes are appealing to both consumers and IT corporations because to its useful features such as behavior tracking and safety checks. Smart homes provide numerous benefits for homeowners and others, but they are also vulnerable to harmful hacks that endanger customers. Although solutions for preventing these dangers exist, they are extremely centralized and prone to mass attack. As a result, the cutting-edge sector of automated smart home apps and facilities lacks the necessary flexibility and scalability for productive usage. Several innovative technologies have been developed to make people's daily lives easier. These apps may generate large volumes of data. There are security problems involved with archiving dynamic material. Blockchain has shown to be a dependable and effective solution for remote connection and data transfer in cybersecurity. As a result, it is increasingly being utilized for home automation.

The utilization of multiple electronic gadgets (smart TVs, lights, etc.) that function independently or in concert with one another to monitor the different settings of smart homes is referred to as blockchain-based HA infrastructure. These intelligent gadgets must be able to communicate with one another in order to fulfill the full potential of HA. When several smart devices need to connect with one another, an IoT gateway addresses the problem. To avoid a security breach, such as users in one house accessing electronic equipment in another, the service provider is responsible for giving control suggestions to the users' smart devices based on clever intelligent algorithms. Machine learning algorithms may be used by service providers to deliver more accurate suggestions and projections.

Connecting users and service providers using a blockchain network increases HA security. The blockchain may be created using Ethereum or Hyperledger, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 depicts the overall blockchain concept for HA.

Residents can only engage with the features of their own smart home equipment and not with the smart gadgets in the smart homes around them. The gateway allows all household devices to connect directly to the blockchain system. The blockchain's hashing process can be used to connect blocks containing device data. The service provider can give data analysis and user-friendly recommendations, but it cannot access the real smart home equipment. All of the devices in a house may interact with the blockchain network via the gateway.

Challenges and Solutions: Many distinct blockchain technologies are now being used in HA-related applications. The data in each system is stored in a different format, making integration challenging. Furthermore, these networks make use of a variety of consensus approaches. Interoperability across blockchain systems will be achievable only if they are standardized. Performing real-time analytics on streaming data is another challenge when utilizing blockchain for HA applications. They must be analyzed and assessed in real time. In an intrusion detection system, for example, real-time facial detection is critical. Processing blockchains may be problematic for real-time applications. Using a simple framework might be the solution to this problem.

3.2 Blockchain for Modern Metering Infrastructure

The brain of an AMI system, a smart meter collects, tracks, and transmits data on each consumer's energy use. These meter data are used by many different parties, each for different reasons. While the distributor can use the data from smart meters to create price structure and invoicing, the utility grid may use this information for demand forecasts and scheduling. Users may also utilize this data for energy management reasons, on the other hand. Despite all of the advantages of AMI, secure data transmission between devices is challenging. The blockchain-based AMI is a crucial element in achieving this objective. A typical strategy for incorporating blockchain technology into AMI is shown in Figure 4.

A typical strategy for incorporating blockchain into AMI is shown in Figure 4.

The gateway allows smart meters to connect directly to the blockchain network. Meter readings shall comprise meter identification and other data relevant to the supply of utility services in line with the IEC 62056 process. The AMI sends data to the meters, which are linked to the servers or nodes in the blockchain network. Following that, all other nodes in the blockchain-enabled network are granted access to these blocks. This network must be a private blockchain network that only nodes linked with the utility hub may access. Smart contracts and validations on a private blockchain may expose inefficiencies in energy usage without losing privacy or security.

Despite the apparent benefits, blockchain technology has not been widely employed for this SG use case. Scientists have used it to increase the security of AMI software. A blockchain-based lightweight architecture for increasing AMI security. This architecture used little energy and was resistant to hacking efforts. How blockchain may safeguard the private data of AMI users. The AMI blockchain suffers from the same lack of interoperability and real-time delay as HA apps.

3.3. Electric Vehicle Blockchain

As a result of the rapid growth of smart grid and the rising sophistication of electric cars (EVs) (V2G), new communication structures—vehicle-to-grid interfaces—have evolved. Logistics companies, for example, currently provide permanent charging stations (CSs) for their fleet of automobiles, and this trend is projected to continue as technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and the Internet of Things (IoT) gain traction. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology was created in response to the demand for real-world interoperability between automobiles and other technological systems.

V2X systems are made up of integrated vehicle sensor platforms that centralize several functions on a single EV server. V2X performance measurements are created from a data collection that includes information about shared multi-networked data and the technological proficiency of an electric vehicle. Because of its security, speed of data transfer between linked automobiles, and global coverage of telecommunication systems, 5G networks have evolved and expanded fast over the world. Multi-networked communication systems provided by 5G technology have the processing power to execute higher-level applications. A 5G network powers a V2X protocol, which fosters the creation and integration of blockchain applications. Incorporating blockchain technology into the vehicle-to-everything protocol has the potential to transform intelligent transportation systems, enhancing transportation efficacy and efficiency as well as road safety.

The overall blockchain architecture of EV apps is depicted in Figure 5. The blockchain-based infrastructure for electric cars requires regular nodes to record the behavior of moving vehicles. These nodes serve as the blockchain's backbone, verifying blocks and carrying out smart contracts. The data from mobile EVs is relayed to these stationary blockchain nodes or access points. Wi-Fi connects the numerous nodes and mobile electric cars, each with its own unique ID number. An access point transmits data from an EV to its charging station, such as battery life, vehicle status, charging fees, and so on. The nodes add this data to the distributed ledger in the form of blocks, and various blockchain nodes validate the transaction. The blockchain network might be used by transportation authorities to track the state of EVs and send personalised recommendations and warnings to each vehicle's owner. However, the transportation agency is unable to change the settings on an EV.

Figure 5: EV application blockchain architecture.

Electric vehicles' potential as part of a sustainable transportation system has garnered extensive attention in recent years. EVs may now interact with their environment because to rapid technical advancements that enable smart network connectivity. The cost of producing power is steadily decreasing due to the usage of renewable energy and smart networks. As a result, the key challenge of peer-to-peer technology, E-trading and D-trading, and integration for electric automobiles is the development of a secure communication architecture that maintains data confidentiality and information anonymity. The basic goal of a blockchain is to conceal economic transactions behind a veil of anonymity while maintaining data security. Many academic studies have been conducted on the usage of blockchain technology in the Emerging Smart Grid. Despite the technology's extensive reputation for utility, security must be assessed routinely in order to increase the SG's reliability. As a result, the deployment of blockchain-based EV charging infrastructure is thoroughly outlined. Ethereum blockchain technology, which is widely employed in the implementation of decentralized apps. Its advantage is the safe crediting of energy transfers between electric vehicle owners and businesses that run charging stations. The only impediments that may be removed in the future are the blockchain's intrinsic limits, such as high transaction fees due to network congestion, power dissipation, and transactions that do not change in the event of errors. 

A test case demonstrated the significance of technoeconomic evaluation of residential energy trading systems. One component of this system that might benefit from blockchain technology is an electric vehicle (EV). Electric vehicles that employ blockchain technology not only improve home interaction with power markets, but they also considerably reduce their grid impact.

Problems and Solutions: The scalability of blockchain data, the security of downloaded data, and the privacy of blockchain transactions are all issues that have yet to be resolved. P2P services have substantial challenges in processing energy transfers and ensuring user privacy. The high resource requirements and transaction cost in terms of energy consumption impede the use of blockchain technology for EV applications with WSN infrastructure. If these impediments could be overcome, blockchain technology would become the most important component in the development of electric vehicles. One possible option is to develop compact blockchain algorithms for real-time consensus.

3.4. Blockchain Technology for Renewable Microgrids

Every day, more evidence emerges of the continuous change and progress toward a renewable grid based on a diverse range of decentralized energy sources such as solar panels, fuel cells, microturbines, batteries, and so on. Blockchain technology is critical to the successful implementation of these developments. The general blockchain architecture of the MG application is depicted in Figure 6. The electrical grid of a zone sometimes covers a large area, necessitating the consideration of several MGs. These several MGs are connected together via the blockchain technology. The blockchain network seeks to promote safety and secrecy in the MG operation without compromising data quality or transparency.

The generated energy, power to be transmitted to other microgrids, and so on are all contained in the data block. A consensus technique is used to confirm the correctness of each newly formed block of MG data. The block is uploaded to the blockchain and the network once it has been validated. To agree on the nature of the energy being transferred, the value of the power being sold, and so on, blockchain nodes require proper algorithms.

Figure 6 depicts the blockchain architecture for MG.

Blockchain is seen as a possible option for effective operation of renewable microgrids, such as sophisticated point-to-point transactions between producers, dealers, and users that employ elaborate algorithms to authenticate, secure, and record these transactions. This is because of the increasing communal, financial, diplomatic, and environmental repercussions and methods, such as increasing electricity consumption, dealing with the middleman, market liberalization, and pollution. Many authors have investigated blockchain in the context of microgrids from various perspectives. The necessity of blockchain, its benefits, and its challenges were highlighted. Real-world solutions, such as the Brooklyn Microgrid, which is built on a blockchain environment and employs the proof-of-work (PoW) technique, were offered.  

Individuals who seek to propose and implement viable solutions and techniques for renewable microgrids using blockchain technology. Furthermore, red. demonstrates an efficient P2P blockchain-based energy market between a microgrid and a smart grid, with the distributed consensus method evaluated in the face of a fault data injection attack (FDIA). In the face of a cyberattack, the key findings of this article revealed that the general agreement process continues, with the P2P market's production response approaching that of the centralized energy market. In line with the spirit of the solution, the authors presented a blockchain-based integrated energy management platform and a bilateral trading mechanism that, according to simulation results, greatly improves energy flow in a microgrid.

A new model for blockchain-based energy systems was developed, along with a Pythagorean fuzzy approach for determining the ideal energy creation, distribution, and disposal. Results demonstrating more profitability and reduced CO2 emissions have also been published, presenting an alternative P2P energy trading approach among dispersed generations based on the same technology and applying a fuzzy meta-heuristic method as a pricing solution. Furthermore, the benefits of merging the power market with blockchain where transactions were stressed via a multi-agent coordination and trading model based on the Ethereum private blockchain were underlined. As we progress through this part, we see that blockchain applications differ based on the underlying infrastructure technology of microgrids, such as AC, DC, or hybrid AC-DC MGs. 

Problems and Solutions: Blockchain-based renewable microgrids [68,69] provide several advantages but confront substantial challenges. From the beginning to the conclusion, there are limitations in technology, finance, society, the environment, politics and institutions, laws and regulations, social norms, and privacy and security. Privacy, resource management, limits, and pricing remain difficult to balance realistically and successfully. Consortiums operate microgrids in a variety of ways; thus, determining and agreeing on the best algorithm or methods to apply; the most acceptable technology; the most appropriate investor; and a highly skilled crew are critical.

3.5. Energy Management System Using Blockchain

The creation and deployment of a distributed system that incorporates blockchain benefits both producers and users in the energy market. Wind and solar power are becoming more common renewable energy sources, and as a result, the energy market structure and the requirement for secure energy transactions have changed to meet this increase. This is possible with the use of blockchain technology. The distributed ledger technology of blockchain has enormous promise for energy marketing transactions. An EMS intends to promote reliable real-time energy trading among all energy market players, including but not limited to producing systems (including renewable and nonrenewable energy sources), consumer services, and energy suppliers. Figure 7 displays an EMS's blockchain architecture.

Figure 7: An EMS's blockchain architecture.

The SG intends to integrate alternative and conventional energy sources. We have individual dwellings, apartment complexes, office buildings, commercial centers, and so on on the demand side. Additionally, EV charging stations are available to Singaporeans. The entities in the consumer sector, on the other hand, not only consume but also create electricity. This type of consumer is referred to as a prosumer. When consumers store and use energy surpluses, they assist to reduce the load on the power infrastructure. While this relieves strain on the electrical infrastructure, it also necessitates careful monitoring of who buys and sells electricity. Personal information protection safeguards for both parties are equally important to the operation of the energy marketplace. To achieve this purpose, blockchain technology may be integrated into the EMS.

The blockchain network, as shown in Figure 7, aims to link all SG domains, including the producing system, technological infrastructure, consumption system, regulator, and control center. The blockchain-based EMS guarantees the privacy and integrity of energy transactions due to its distributed nature, interoperability, and smart contracts. To ensure safety and privacy in the energy trading sector, private blockchains may incorporate data protections and restricted group access. Because of its decentralized character, the blockchain-based EMS enhances transparency in P2P energy trading without endangering users' right to privacy.

Challenges and Solutions: Trading challenges occur when energy expenditures grow, necessitating tight management of the trading system; it cannot be permitted to function unchecked. Stringent supervision of this trading system is required because as the energy transaction grows, so do the problems. As a result, a framework for managing energy transactions online was introduced, allowing clients to have a better understanding of their own price and usage patterns. Yi Zhang et al. addressed the issue of user security and energy flow. S.N.G. Gourisetti et al. presented an online double auction-based energy market structure. 

We can now have smart meters with additional privacy and security capabilities thanks to blockchain technology. 

Furthermore, a mechanism for monitoring renewable energy production by storing and selling energy between houses and user communication networks was proposed. Table 2 summarizes the research on blockchain technology applications in several SG fields.

Table 2 shows the applications of blockchain technology in many SG fields.

3.6. Energy Management System Using Blockchain

Because of the expansion of technologies such as blockchain, IoT, and cloud computing, the smart city framework is fast evolving. The Internet of Things (IoT)'s future will determine the design of "smart cities," including the number and type of sensors and "smart objects" used to gather information about public facilities and services, as well as the accessibility of that information to the general public, the effectiveness of environmental safeguards, and the level of economic growth. Figure 8 shows a high-level blockchain architecture for SCs. Running all of the smart city's services on the same blockchain network would be unfeasible. As a result, cities of various sizes and smart service kinds will require varied blockchain network architectures. It is feasible that each blockchain will be adapted to the exact requirements of a certain application. A blockchain stores data created by smart technology (such as smart automobiles, smart homes, and smart hospitals). We will require proper methodologies and blockchain frameworks to ensure the services function smoothly.

Figure 8: A high-level overview of a blockchain infrastructure for SCs.

Some of the problems associated with smart city transportation. These studies demonstrated how to use blockchain, which enables the use of distributed stored data and transactions between producers and beneficiaries without the use of intermediaries such as banks or governments, to improve public transportation and logistics, water supply, green energy, the environment, health, and education. Smart contracts are becoming more significant in the evolution of transactions between parties, and blockchain architecture will help to accelerate this process. These contracts are triggered by either party's actions (understandings) or by sensor, actuator, or Internet-of-Things tag readings.  As a result, block chain technology will assist logistics, energy, the ecology, water management, health, and other areas as it helps turn communities into smart cities.

Challenges and Solutions: Smart city entities come in a vast range. Smart city organizations deploy a variety of blockchain networks, each tailored for a specific use case. When it comes to smart transportation, for example, gadgets are continually moving to new locations, but they remain static when it comes to smart lighting. Because of the scattered nature of the entities, the blockchain's design must be properly thought out before implementation. Proper research is required to improve blockchain technology so that it is both resilient and fast. Furthermore, due to incompatibility, data transfer from one blockchain network to another in the SC may be challenging.

4. Smart Grid Cybersecurity System with Blockchain Support

4.1 Common Security Threats in Smart Grids

There are a number of potential issues with smart grids that might have an impact on both enterprises and everyday customers. If the company is attacked, critical data including customer personal information might be at danger. Customers are at risk even when they are not online because adversaries can try to eavesdrop on them and steal sensitive data. The United States has a greater rate of cyberattacks than any other nation (73%), whereas the average rate for all other nations is less than 5%. In terms of industry, the energy sector has the highest rate of cyberattacks (51%).

It is well known that cyberattacks have the potential to seriously harm the smart grid. The availability, integrity, and privacy of a smart grid might be jeopardized by cyberattacks. Since there are so many different kinds of cyberattacks, it is hard to list them all. Table 3 includes the CIA Classification for smart grid assaults. In this part, we'll go through a few typical types of cyberattacks on the smart grid.

Table 3 shows how the CIA classifies smart grid assaults.

4.1.1 Attacks involving a denial-of-service (DoS)

In a distributed denial-of-service (DoS) attack, hackers send out erroneous commands to a server or network, interrupting the service for the target audience either temporarily or permanently. Attackers constantly send many requests to the targeted machine or resource in order to overwhelm systems and prohibit incomplete inquiries. A single computer and a single communication channel are used in a typical DoS assault to overwhelm the target network or resource. Similar in nature, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults overwhelm their target by using several computers and networks. The effects of this attack could be even worse because it is difficult to stop it by restricting a single source.

Current denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on smart rids target many communication layers, including the application layer, network and transport layers, media access control (MAC) layer, and physical layer. Application-layer DoS/DDoS attacks can affect millions of ICT devices in a smart grid due to their limited processing capabilities [97]. Extreme data quantities are the foundation of denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults on the network and transport layers, decreasing transmission bandwidth in communication channels and, ultimately, impeding legitimate users' access. This type of attack jeopardizes the quality of end-to-end communications. 

A DoS/DDoS attack at the MAC layer may intentionally tamper with the MAC settings to obtain access to the network by lowering the performance of those who utilize the same communication channel. At the MAC layer, three types of frames (data frames, control frames, and management frames) are utilized to transfer information. Unlike data frames, which are normally encrypted, management and control frames are not. As a result, denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service assaults may impair the infrastructure for control and administration. An attacker's use of signal jamming to launch a denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service assault at the physical layer is widespread; all they require is a bridge to the communication channels. Jammer attacks on a smart grid, according to prior investigations, can result in anything from delayed delivery of time-critical signals to outright denial of service.

 4.1.2 False Data Injection Attack (FDIA) 

FDIA may harm a power system because it might confuse the state estimate procedure and mislead the system operator. Any control center's state estimation is frequently an essential component. It modifies the state of each bus by first filtering the SCADA system's raw sensor information. The results of state estimations are used in several power system applications. The control and monitoring features (EMSs) of energy management systems (EMSs) may be purposefully misled using false and malicious data information. A malicious assault might also have unfavorable results. The theoretical underpinnings, practical ramifications, and countermeasures of FDIAs are the main study focuses. 

The development of injection vectors that can avoid detection by the command-and-control server in a range of circumstances is the aim of theoretical study. The impact of FDIAs on the operation of the power system is assessed (MMS) on the application side, specifically with regard to energy management systems (EMS) and market management systems. The system operators' main job as the defender is to supply them with efficient defense strategies. A legitimate FDIA might have an impact on how energy is distributed and sold, as well as how the power system functions. Ex-ante and ex-post effects of FDIAs in the electrical sector were recently studied by Xie et al. Gaining more is one of an assault's objectives. Typically, their goal is to purchase virtual power at one node at a low cost and then profitably resale it to other nodes through an FDIA.

4.1.3. Phishing

Because phishing is so simple, it might be the first step in exposing organizations and their customers to risk. If customers do not properly dispose of their bills and payment receipts, hackers may gain access to important information about an energy business. Employees may also face dangers from within the firm, such as phishing emails that look legal but include malware that takes personal information. Giving information to untrustworthy sources and comprehending the implications of these concerns may have a privacy and financial effect on smart grid users. As a result, it is a critical difficulty for developing a defense against phishing attacks.

4.1.4. Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping and traffic pattern analysis are two types of spoofing attacks. The intruder may take confidential data by listening in on network traffic. Keeping the units connected to the larger network on which a smart grid relies is difficult. As a result, it threatens the entire system. Most data security centers are concerned about smart grid because it poses the greatest threat to data theft [108].

4.2 Breach of Security

A smart grid is a technical hybrid that employs network and communication technologies to give a variety of benefits while supplying power. Smart grids, on the other hand, may be vulnerable to the same threats as internet systems. Numerous security breaches have happened, and they are explored in a variety of articles that explain the impact of certain large cyberattacks and give advice for preventing such attacks in the future.

4.2.1 Black Energy Trojan-Horse Malware

On December 25, 2015, a cyberattack happened in the midst of a civil war simulation. A cyberattack on an electrical power plant in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk endangered the lives of 80,000 people by turning out the lights. The cyberattack was carried out using a spear-phishing email and the "BlackEnergy" Trojan-horse malware. This was a very destructive virus capable of erasing information, corrupting hard drives, and even taking over infected PCs. The onslaught escalated when the perpetrator conducted a targeted denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the industry's utility equipment, thereby shutting down the operator's support phone line at the power plant. As a result, clients were unable to report the disruption caused by the DoS assault. Since the hack stole information and destabilized a country's critical infrastructure, the situation has deteriorated substantially and terribly. Many individuals died in the harsh cold since there was no heat or power. This is the most calamitous catastrophe in recent history.

4.2.2 Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a destructive computer worm that targets SCADA systems (SCADA). Stuxnet was initially detected in 2010 (Denning, 2012). It was claimed that Stuxnet was created by the US and Israeli espionage organizations. The malicious Stuxnet computer worm uses the Microsoft Windows operating system and networks to manipulate programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are in charge of managing the electromechanical operations of machines. The huge computer worm Stuxnet infiltrated the control system of Iran's Nuclear Power Plant, where it altered the (PLCs) that governed the centrifuges used to separate nuclear material, forcing them to spin faster than usual and ripping the apparatus apart. In reaction to the Stuxnet computer infection, the specialized machinery doubled its spinning speed and immediately began destroying the nuclear fuel. While Stuxnet presents minimal damage to compromised equipment, it does undertake a check to see if the infected machine is linked to particular Siemens PLC types. Stuxnet was created by the United States and Israel to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

4.2.3 WannaCry Ransomware

WannaCry ransomware was a devastating piece of malware that knocked down the computers of thousands of ordinary people all around the world and damaged large organizations such as Renault and FedEx. The WannaCry ransomware was unleashed on May 12, 2017. Over 200 thousand workstations were infected with the WannaCry Ransomware software, which encrypted data and demanded a charge to recover it. If victims did not pay the USD 300 in bitcoins, the hackers attempted to decode the whole system and threatened to permanently delete all system data. According to sources, the WannaCry Ransomware attack had the largest impact on NHS hospital systems, canceling over 19,000 appointments and putting countless lives in danger. 

The ultimate cost of upgrading the NHS's IT infrastructure was twenty million pounds in penalties and seventy-two million pounds in cleaning up and updating the IT systems. The ransomware attack was spread in a variety of methods, including phishing emails and outdated PCs lacking the most recent Microsoft security upgrades. 

The attack was carried out by highly trained North Korean hackers, according to a collaborative investigation performed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Because computers in hospitals are used for life-saving surgery, the focus on this lethal cyberattack has created a serious risk to human lives.

4.3. Countermeasures against Cyberattacks

The information and communication networks are particularly vulnerable to risks and dangers when it comes to cybersecurity in smart grids. It is preferable to use a security solution to protect against vulnerabilities while engaging in specific security risks. The hazards and dangers that a network and system must deal with present the biggest obstacle. The categorization of smart grid risks and assaults from various sources is shown in Figure 9. The integrity of a smart grid system and its data must be protected, and this security must be effective against a variety of cyberattacks. It is thought that employing a variety of defenses at various detecting nodes may result in a safe and secure system.  

One of the biggest threats to a smart grid is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which might result in the failure of the communication networks and control systems that form the backbone of the smart grid. Following a review of further counterattacks for smart grid, the two categories of DoS defense techniques are provided.

Figure 9 shows how various smart grid risks and assaults are categorized.

4.3.1. DoS Attack Detection and Defense

DoS assaults may be launched from anywhere on the planet with access to communication networks, including the Internet, and a smart grid must be able to detect and fight against them. Obviously, the first step in preventing assaults is to detect them. At the physical MAC layer, detection based on the signal itself takes place. A DoS attack detector can evaluate whether an attack is in process and sound an alert if it receives the signal and measures its strength. Individual packet detection is a mechanism for determining the success of a transmission over any number of levels. 

Given that DoS attacks frequently cause packet loss or delay, and hence a decrease in network performance, this is a typical and effective method. DoS attacks can be detected, and network security can be evaluated or quantified by sending out probing packets ahead of time. The hybrid approach seeks to increase threat detection accuracy by creating a single integrated strategy from two or more methodologies.

After a DoS attack has been discovered, defense in the form of attack mitigation measures can be applied to defend a network from it. Countermeasures are classified into two types: those that operate at the network layer and those that operate at the physical layer. 

Rate limitation, filtering, and reconfiguration are examples of network layer defenses against denial-of-service attacks. The rate-limiting technique's purpose is to limit the transmission speed of malicious packets. Filtering uses a filtering system that compares packet source addresses to a blacklist, blocking any suspicious traffic and preventing attacking packets from reaching their intended destinations. One solution is to reconfigure the network's design to provide the victim more resources or to shut down the attacking nodes. Wireless jamming should be the primary denial-of-service assault in a wireless smart grid. In recent years, jamming-resistant solutions have been developed to mitigate the impact of this type of attack. Different approaches, such as direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and frequency-hopping, are used in coordinated control.

Wireless jamming should be the primary denial-of-service assault in a wireless smart grid. In recent years, jamming-resistant solutions have been developed to mitigate the impact of this type of attack. Different approaches, such as direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), and chirp spread spectrum (CSS), are employed in coordinated control to guard against wireless cyberattacks. However, the secret in DSSS is intended to be unknown to attackers in a straight sequence, but the secret in FHSS is intended to be unknowable to attackers in a hopping pattern. Uncoordinated protocols provide a new secret at random for each session, making it impossible for attackers to acquire enough information to interrupt the signal. Because it does not rely on the transmitter and receiver sharing an assumed secret, this technique has a lot of potential for safeguarding wireless communications in a decentralized situation.

4.3.2 Encryption 

The encryption described encrypts data such that an unauthorized entity cannot decode it. Any encrypted information, as well as any data intercepted by hackers, are rendered worthless in the form of raw code. Encryption is a type of concealed coding. A cipher is the mechanism used to encrypt your data, and a key is the set of rules that allows you to decrypt the message. The industry's strongest encryption standard, 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), is used by the best VPN providers. The number of feasible permutations for 256-bit encryption exceeds the number of stars in the Milky Way. This level of encryption is used by banks and governments all around the world to secure sensitive information.

4.3.3. Authentication 

In circumstances where authentication and access management are required, robust authentication systems are critical. An "implicit deny policy" may be beneficial in creating authentication and limiting network access to only explicit users. This policy gives security solutions to the organization and allows for the diversification of rights between users (for example, management can examine all supplementary data associated with projects, whilst workers have restricted access to data). You may reduce the probability of a security breach and know who logged in by restricting access to trustworthy personnel.

4.3.4 Malware Protection

Malware prevention is critical for a smart grid due to the requirement to safeguard and defend the embedded system and general-purpose systems connected to the smart grid from cyberattacks. A manufacturer's key is required to validate the integrity of the embedded software. The manufacturer's software may need to be legitimate in order to deliver the solutions, and the organization may need to undertake risk management in order to prevent the damage that may result from installing counterfeit programs. Instead of using the manufacturer's key, confirm that the software is genuine and has not been illegally replicated. When it comes to preventing malware, antivirus software is frequently utilized as a first line of protection. Threats may become vulnerable to malware as a result of phishing attacks, but antivirus software must be up to current with the most recent patch, and the attacker must not discover a way to circumvent the protection. The most economical and safe technique for protecting a smart grid is to utilize a network intrusion prevention system (NIPS), which can both restrict user access to a network and defend it from cyberattacks. Furthermore, the NIPS can monitor intrusion data and intervene to prevent an attack from starting. Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) add additional layer of protection to smart grids by monitoring and analyzing network traffic to detect and prevent network-based assaults.

4.3.5. Network Security

VPNs enable users to strengthen their security when connecting to a public network over the Internet. Because using public network infrastructure exposes sensitive information, a virtual private network (VPN) utilizes a variety of security techniques, including encryption, to protect data in transit. Additionally, virtual private networks (VPNs) are used for communication since they provide a secure channel for data transfer. There are two types of VPNs, both of which benefit businesses and their regular consumers. Users can connect to internal corporate networks over a public network using remote access virtual private networks (VPNs). Users using mobile devices and desktop PCs will be able to connect to the VPN server after authenticating. When the credentials are correct, the authentication can authenticate access and provide access to the resources of the virtual network. The proprietary apps and data of a corporation are among the resources that are only available within the firm. Connecting to a VPN gateway enables remote access VPN users to fulfill their jobs from any place. Virtual private networking (VPN) between two locations is quite similar to remote VPN access. However, it frequently connects the whole network in a single location, even if the networks themselves are located elsewhere; this is beneficial for a larger corporation that has to safely share its resources with multiple outposts in different places to support its partner or client business.

4.3.6 Risk and Maturity Evaluations

In recent years, there has been the development of a number of innovative methods for conducting cybersecurity risk assessments and implementing mitigations in large, complex networks and infrastructure where complete security audits cannot be performed due to time and capacity constraints. Cyber defense triage is a strategy for identifying high-impact assault areas that require rapid security responses. Again, a maturity assessment may reveal security flaws and allow them to be addressed. This includes risk assessment, which is only one of several controls that may be examined.

4.3.7. IPS and IDS

Intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and intrusion detection systems (IDS) are technologies for detecting and preventing network intrusions. An intrusion prevention system (IPS) is a type of network security that can detect and prevent certain types of assaults. Intrusion prevention systems continuously monitor your network, logging any unusual activities. An IPS warns system administrators, who then disable the access points and install firewalls to prevent additional attacks. An intrusion detection system (IPS) can be used to identify when employees or visitors to a network violate the company's policies. An IDS, on the other hand, is just responsible for monitoring the network and alerting system administrators to any unusual behavior.