Researchers in the US are using blockchain technology to strengthen the electric grid’s resilience and eliminate dangers like data tampering.
For the first time, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are utilizing blockchain technology to monitor and verify communication among equipment on an electric grid.
The research is a part of the DOE Office of Energy-funded Darknet initiative sponsored by ORNL, which aims to protect the country’s electricity infrastructure by converting its communications to ever-more-secure protocols.
Cyber dangers have escalated with two-way communication between grid power electronics equipment and emerging edge devices like solar panels, EV chargers, and sophisticated home electronics.
An ORNL research team led by Raymond Borges Hink has created a framework to detect odd behavior, including data manipulation, spoofing, and unauthorized changes to device settings. This framework establishes a trust framework for communication among electrical devices.
Borges Hink says, “This architecture gives us a completely new capability to react quickly to anomalies.” “Over time, we could detect an unauthorized system change more quickly, track down its origin, and offer more reliable failure analysis. Limiting the harm a cyberattack or equipment malfunction causes is the aim.”
Blockchain enables quick recognition and response.
The method distributes redundant configuration and operational data across numerous servers using a tamper-proof blockchain. The information and settings of the equipment are continuously compared to a statistical baseline of typical voltage, frequency, breaker state, and power quality. The last exemplary configuration kept in the blockchain is compared to the equipment settings that are periodically collected, making it possible to identify changes to settings quickly and determine whether they were authorized and what led to them.
Borges Hink says, “Our method helps identify in almost real-time whether a breakdown was caused by a cyberattack or provoked by natural phenomena.”
A blockchain implementation makes this type of data validation between a substation, a control center, and a metering infrastructure possible for the first time.
Processing a massive volume of information is necessary for this type of monitoring. The process of representing large amounts of data as numbers in the blockchain is known as hashing, and it is a cryptographic technique used by the blockchain. As a result, less room is needed to store data while also saving energy. The blockchain processes hundreds of transactions per second for each intelligent grid device, validating the contents.
The architecture was tested in a lab setting at ORNL’s GRID-C, the DOE’s Grid Research Integration and Deployment Center. The advanced protection lab, created under Emilio Piesciorovsky’s direction at ORNL, replicates the design of an entire substation using commercially available technology in a closed electrical loop.
This offers a low-risk method for simulating cyberattacks or unintentional configuration errors. Both are detectable by the team’s validation mechanism. Researchers are expanding the strategy to include communications between various utilities and renewable energy sources.
