Impact of cyber attacks on high voltage DC transmission damping control

Hybrid AC/HVDC (AC-HVDC) grids have evolved to become huge cyber-physical systems that are vulnerable to cyber attacks because of the wide attack surface and increasing dependence on intelligent electronic devices, computing resources and communication networks. This paper, for the first time, studies the impact of cyber attacks on HVDC transmission oscillation damping control.Three kinds of cyber attack models are considered: timing attack, replay attack and false data injection attack. Followed by a brief introduction of the HVDC model and conventional oscillation damping control method, the design of three attack models is described in the paper. These attacks are tested on a modified IEEE New England 39-Bus AC-HVDC system. Simulation results have shown that all three kinds of attacks are capable of driving the AC-HVDC system into large oscillations or even unstable conditions.