New smart-grid operation-based network access control

Changes due to increasing use of equipment with communication capability in electricity distribution systems, development of microgrids, government-imposed electricity-market open access competitions, etc., have let electricity utilities in a greater reliance on communication networks for smart-grid operations that include monitoring, protection, control, and time-of-use metering. This paper presents a new smart-grid network access control strategy and a new operation-based access model in order to increase the grid-access security and grid-operation efficiency. The new access model extends the network access control from a traditional single security domain to multiple domains specifically designed for interconnected microgrids. A security policy to simplify power-grid network security administrations is proposed, the authorization is independently defined and separated from policy representations as well as implementation mechanisms, and digital credential is introduced to establish trust and role assignments for users in different microgrid domains. The proposed smart-grid operation-based network access control has significant advantages over the standard role-based access control for application on smart-grid operations. This paper presents case studies for illustrating this new smart-grid operation-based network access controls.