Power systems often rely on natural gas pipeline networks to supply fuel for gas-fired generation. Market inefficiencies and a lack of formal coordination between the wholesale power and gas delivery infrastructures may magnify the broader impact of a cyber-attack on a natural gas pipeline. In this study we present a model that can be used to quantify the impact of cyber-attacks on electricity and gas delivery operations. We model activation of cyber-attack vectors that attempt to gain access to pipeline gas compressor controls using a continuous-time Markov chain over a state space based on the gas operator Industrial Control System firewall zone partition. Our approach evaluates the operating states and decision-making in the networks using physically realistic and operationally representative models. We summarize these models, the sequence of analyses used to quantify the impacts of a cyber-incident, and propose a Monte Carlo simulation approach to quantify the resulting effect on the reliability of the bulk power system by the increase in operational cost. The methodology is applied to a case study of interacting power, gas, and cyber test networks.
@article{arxiv.1910.03662,
title = {An Adversarial Model for Attack Vector Vulnerability Analysis on Power and Gas Delivery Operations},
author = {Ignacio Losada Carreno and Anna Scaglione and Anatoly Zlotnik and Deepjyoti Deka and Kaarthik Sundar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.03662},
year = {2019}
}