A proposed study on economic impacts due to cyber attacks in Smart Grid: A risk based assessment

Smart Grid has a tightly coupled relationship between the generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power, and the digital information and communication technologies (ICT) that control or manage the system. Due to the heavy reliance on ICT in Smart Grid, cyber security and economic impacts of cyber-attacks are challenging issues. This paper presents a conceptual model of Smart Grid taking consideration of different kinds of attacks in the communication layer, and impacts of the attacks on valuable assets and services in each layer of the model. A mathematic model is then proposed for risk assessment by focusing on economics impacts based on their costs and benefits.