Smart Grid Overview: Infrastructure, Cyber-Physical Security and Challenges

This paper presents an overview of smart grid and issues regarding security of cyber-physical components. The motivation for choosing this topic resumes to the present transition of the power grid to an advanced, two-way communication and distributed generation of renewable energy smart grid. Due to the fact that the power grid's infrastructure, systems and applications were not designed to easily integrate the IT network, architectural vulnerabilities arise leading to physical and cyber security risks.