Lightweight IEC 61850 Secure Communication Module for Microgrids

Abstract

Microgrid systems use distributed renewable energy resources to reduce dependency of traditional power systems. These energy devices are located at various places because of their characteristic and communicate using Ethernet control protocol like IEC 61850. Because of performance requirement of IEC 61850 standard, most commercial IEC 61850 libraries do not apply security functions even though IEC 62351 standard series define security necessary of IEC 61850. Naturally, IEC 62351 series are not mandatory but optional. However, absence of security functions means energy systems transfer raw data using Ethernet network and are vulnerable to known cyber-attacks like man-in-the-middle attack. In this paper, we suggest IEC 61850 secure communication module to prevent cyber-attacks with satisfaction of IEC 61850 standard performance requirements. Our module is lightweight to satisfy 5m sec reactivity and provides integrity and confidence using bi-directional authentication and X.509 certificates.