Towards modelling the impact of cyber attacks on a smart grid

This paper provides an introduction to cyber attack impact analysis in the smart grid and highlights existing research in the field. We present an impact analysis framework where we focus on the model synthesis stage where both cyber and physical grid entity relationships are modelled as directed graphs. Each node of the graph has associated state information that is governed by dynamical system equations that model the physics of the interaction (for electrical grid components) or functionality (for cyber grid elements). We illustrate how cause-effect relationships can be conveniently expressed for both analysis and extension to large-scale smart grid systems.