Cyber Physical Emulation of Power Grids: Co-Simulation of EXata CPS and HYPERSIM

This thesis explores the use of cyber-physical emulation of power grids to analyze the impact of different types of cyberattacks. It outlines the co-simulation process of HYPERSIM and EXata CPS within the OPAL-RT real-time digital simulator, demonstrating various cyberattacks on two power system models. The first model is a simple communication-focused testbed for easy demonstration of co-simulation setup, while the second is a power system model of a secondary network used to assess the cybersecurity of network protector units in low-voltage networks through a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbed. Using this testbed, the cybersecurity of the direct transfer trip (DTT) scheme is evaluated by emulating denial-of-service (DOS) attacks from the secondary network model. Additionally, packet modification attacks (MODP) are evaluated using the simple testbed model, where the communication side is tested to identify vulnerabilities from cyberattacks that could compromise the system. The thesis also covers the graphical user interfaces of HYPERSIM and EXata CPS, the creation and implementation of the cyberattacks, and the tools used to analyze the results.