The lack of such environments puts a serious challenge for the training of qualified workforce to fill tens of thousands of positions in the fast evolving smart grid industry, which becomes an urgent demand after several power grid failures attributed to cyber-related attacks. The open source system MATPOWER does not include the control and communication network components. The few systems that become available recently for research purposes are not designed for in-and-out-of-class exercises since their software infrastructures and programming interfaces cannot be easily grasped by students and instructors. For example, to the best of our knowledge, there is no integrated simulation environment of smart grids dedicated to security educational programs that covers all essential components including power systems, control networks, and communication networks. Different from the emphasis on research in securing critical infrastructures, the corresponding education programs fall behind in this country in many aspects. To better protect future power systems, more than ten university level critical infrastructure research centers have been established nationwide. A Department of Homeland Security report shows that a vulnerability in smart meters could allow attackers to remotely control thousands of such devices and cause regional blackout. To accomplish this task, the proposed efforts consist of the following components: (1) design and develop a smart grid simulation framework including an industry standard control network protocol and a power grid operation simulator (2) design a suite of course modules and hands-on projects upon the environment for security education in smart grids (3) implement the instructional materials in three participating institutions and conduct rigorous and systematic evaluation of their impacts, and (4) promote dissemination and adoption of the proposed approach through faculty development workshops, partnership with industry, high school/undergraduate outreach activities, and instructional material development and sharing.Ĭyber-security of smart grid has raised significant interest and concerns amongst both general public and researchers. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop an integrated simulation framework of smart grids for security educational purposes, design and implement a suite of course modules and handson exercises upon the system, and contribute to the establishment of an education and training pipeline for information security workforce in future power industry through carefully planned evaluation and dissemination activities.
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