Energy networks are becoming ever more decentralized with an increasing number of renewable resources connected to them. Due to the volatile nature of this generation, distribution grids will need to ensure that controllable loads and renewable generation are synchronized, to avoid peaks and prevent over-loading. Achieving this will help enable renewable generation, ensure security of supply, and mitigate expensive grid upgrades.

­­In the energy domain, cybersecurity incidents information sharing [1] among the electrical power and energy systems (EPES) utilities is crucial for the successful mitigation of critical cybersecurity such events.

The electrical grid constitutes of legacy systems that were built with no security in mind. As we move towards the Industry 4.0 area though a high-degree of automation and connectivity provides: 1) fast and flexible configuration and updates as well as 2) easier maintenance and handling of misconfigurations and operational errors.

Nowadays, the demand for designing efficient, end-to-end Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) for Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) has grown tremendously.

It is clear that electrical power and energy systems (EPES) are of key importance for almost all other domains and sectors that demand energy and electricity supply.

Electrical power grids are part of what we call critical infrastructures and are essential for maintaining structure and order within our society.

Architecture of a Synchrophasor networks

A typical architecture of a synchrophasor network is shown in the figure. PMUs produce synchronized measurements of the phasors, frequency and the rate of change of frequency of the voltage and current signals, and output time stamped phasor data to a communication network using a standard format at a predefined reporting rate.

In recent years, Software Defined Vehicular Networks (SDVN) [1], have been emerged as a promising technology to simplify network management and enable innovation through network programmability. Thus, it gains significant attention from academia and industry.

Let’s start with some theoretical aspects, according to Wikipedia, a Blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.