Applicability of Blockchain for Synchrophasor Network

Abstract

Modern power grids highly use synchrophasor communication networks. The synchrophasor network is the backbone of the smart grid. It collects and communicates the measurement data which includes important parameters like phasors, frequency and time. Synchrophasor networks include hardware like Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) and Phasor Data Concentrators (PDC) which majorly communicate the measurement data using IEEE C37.118 standard. This communication architecture has two major drawbacks. First, the IEEE C37.118 Standard lacks encryption mechanism. Second, the communication architecture is centralized in nature. In this paper, we highlight the security analysis of IEEE C37.118 standard and discuss the proposed solutions like Hadoop, Distributed Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Blockchain. We identify the role of blockchain in Smart Grids and also validate its role as a trust model.

Keywords: Synchrophasor communication, Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC), Smart Grid, Blockchain