Cybersecurity Evaluation Methodology for Distributed Energy Resources: Industrial Demonstration

With the widespread integration of renewable energy resources, the occurrence of electric power output control is increasing in Japan, especially for photovoltaic (PV) power plants. The practical application of smart inverters that can perform electric power output control more flexibly over the network has gradually progressed. Still, there is a remaining issue regarding how to determine the implementation method and scope of the cybersecurity evaluation for distributed energy resources (DER), including smart inverters. Therefore, we generated a set of security evaluation items, tools, and supporting environments. We validated these with academics, manufacturers, and electric power companies in realistic settings, after which we were finally able to arrange evaluation methods. In this paper, we describe how we performed the industrial demonstration experiments and what we learned through the trials.