Home // International Journal On Advances in Security, volume 3, numbers 3 and 4, 2010 // View article

Security for the Smart Grid – Enhancing IEC 62351 to Improve Security in Energy Automation Control

Authors:
Steffen Fries
Hans-Joachim Hof
Thierry Dufaure
Maik Seewald

Keywords: Smart Grid, Information Security, Cyber Security, Authentication, Authorization, Energy Automation, Smart Home, IEC Standardization, NERC-CIP

Abstract:
Information security has gained tremendous importance for energy distribution and energy automation systems over the last years. Security for the smart grid is crucial to ensure reliability and continuous operation of the smart grid. However, the smart grid comes along with new use cases that impose new challenges on existing standards like IEC61850. IEC61850 offers standardized communication services and standardized data models for communication in energy automation, hence it is beneficial for the realization of the smart grid. IEC 61850 is flanked by the standard IEC 62351 that addresses security and specifies technical requirements, which have to be met by vendors. This paper provides an overview about the different aspects of security necessary to build and operate smart grid systems by describing current and new use cases. The focus lies on the current state of the standardization of IEC 62351 and its applicability to the described use cases. Moreover, this work discusses potential enhancements of the standard to address potential shortcomings through changed business and operation models leading to changed trust relations in new use cases like decentralized energy generation and load control. These shortcomings are addressed by describing potential enhancements for part 4 of IEC 62351 allowing multiple parallel distinguishable sessions based on the Manufacturing Message Specification and proper end-to-end authentication as well as authorization.

Pages: 169 to 183

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2010. Used with permission.

Publication date: April 6, 2011

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2636