Cyber-attacks in modular multilevel converters

Burgos-Mellado, Claudio; Donoso, Felipe; Dragicevic, Tomislav; Cardenas-Dobson, Roberto; Wheeler, Patrick; Clare, Jon C.; Watson, Alan J.

Abstract

Distributed control of modular multilevel converter (MMC) submodules offers several potential benefits such as flexibility and modularity. In this approach, low-level control tasks, such as capacitor voltage balancing, can be distributed amongst controllers placed in the SMs. This decreases the computational burden for the central control system that performs high-level control tasks. Distributed control architecture requires a cyber-physical network (CFN) through which local controllers share all the information necessary to perform their respective control loops. To date, none of the reported works in this field have paid attention to potential imperfections in the CFN. Indeed, previous works are based on the assumption that the network always provides correct information to the local controllers. However, erroneous measurements in the CFN may degrade the distributed control scheme operation, leading to suboptimal or even unstable operation. These events can occur in the presence of cyber-attacks. This paper is the first to investigate the impacts of cyber-attacks in MMCs. The effects of a specific cyber-attack, named false data injection attack (FDIA), on a consensus-based distributed control strategy are studied. Additionally, a method for detecting FDIAs is proposed, along with a countermeasure strategy, to ensure the safe operation of the MMC. The proposals reported in this paper are validated using simulation and experimental results.

Citation

Burgos-Mellado, C., Donoso, F., Dragicevic, T., Cardenas-Dobson, R., Wheeler, P., Clare, J. C., & Watson, A. J. (2022). Cyber-attacks in modular multilevel converters. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2022.3147466

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 22, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2022
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 16, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 16, 2022
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0885-8993
• Electronic ISSN: 1941-0107
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2022.3147466
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7469969
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9699006
• Additional Information: © 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.