Transformation in substation automation: Cyber-Resilient Digital Substations (CyReDS) in power grids

Abstract The digitalization of substations leads to a high degree of automation, which is referred to as Digital Substations with the use of the IEC 61850. An increase in cybersecurity is necessary, and technically enabled by detection and incident response systems – security-by-design is currently often secondary. The next transformation step of substations is introduced and outlined in this paper as a cyber-resilient digital substation. Based on a state-of-the-art description, this paper presents a definition of cyber resilience for digital substations as a basis for the introduced cyber resilience monitor. The monitor acts as a central instance for recording, assessing and responding to security threats and incidents. Furthermore, the requirements for the system structure of the cyber-resilient digital substation are shown and underpinned with current research approaches.