A Markov-based Security Evaluation for Cyber-Physical-Social Power Grids

Integrating cyber technologies into the power grid is essential for modern power systems. While cyber infrastructure enhances the operation and planning of these grids, it also introduces new threats that can compromise system security. Furthermore, as power grids grow in scale and complexity, certain social factors, such as political influences and the responses of human operators, become critical to ensuring security. One emerging challenge in assessing the security of modern power systems is capturing the interactions between cyber, physical, and social (CPS) components. To address this, this paper proposes a Markov-based security evaluation for power grids that accounts for vulnerabilities across cyber, physical, and social domains. This evaluation integrates CPS interdependencies, threats from different domains, classifies power grids’ states according to predefined security levels, and quantifies overall security. The IEEE-14 bus system is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method under various threats and scenarios.