Secure integration of electric vehicles with the power grid

A wide variety of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as pluggable electric vehicles (EVs), solar arrays, smart buildings, etc. are now being connected to the power grid. Malicious adversaries can use these as entry mechanisms to gain access to the grid with the intention of creating instability in the system. This work focuses on secure integration of DERs with the power grid. To this end, we propose techniques to detect malicious activity when either the DERs or the communication channels between the DERs and the smart grid components are compromised. We propose a cyber-physical anomaly detection engine to ensure that critical grid components remain secure, and hence, safe. Specifically, we have focused on the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. In this system, aggregators are the critical components through which DERs such as EVs are connected to the grid. We have developed a prototype anomaly detection engine for aggregators that manage/communicate with the EVs. Since the V2G system is time-sensitive, the anomaly detection engine also monitors the timing requirements of the system by checking the frequency constraints on messages at the aggregator apart from monitoring the cyber and physical data constraints to ensure safety of the aggregator