ESPSGrid: Emulation-simulation for power smart grids

Due to its impact in modern societies, the security and resilience of Smart Grids is an increasing area of research. This paper describes ESPSGrid, an open-source framework that integrates simulation and emulation to enhance the study of cybersecurity attacks in Smart Grids. Built upon the IEC 61850 standard, ESPSGrid allows to model the physical operation of the grid, while emulating its cyber layer and communications. By bridging the gap between theoretical setups and real-world scenarios, this framework enables researchers to analyze cyber–physical interactions, assess vulnerabilities, and develop security strategies. Its modular and scalable design ensures adaptability for various smart grid configurations. ESPSGrid facilitates advanced cybersecurity research by providing realistic test environments for both operational and attack scenarios. Accordingly, we use ESPSGrid to build and share datasets for various cyberattacks, building a dataset of more than 530 h of simulation, producing more than 123 million network packets that, for example, can be used to train classifiers for intrusion detection systems.