Quantum-Secure Data Transmission in Smart Grid

The vast amounts of data and the growing number of attacks in the smart grids (SGs) are consequences of the huge reliance on information and communication technology, that is further posing serious risks to the confidentiality and integrity of the power data. On the other hand, recent advancements in quantum cryptography are emerging as foundation for secure communication protocols, offering robust defenses against potential cyber threats in SGs. In response to the imperative challenge of secure data transmission, a quantum cryptography based unconditionally secure data transmission model is proposed that integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with classical encryption. Furthermore, truly random encryption keys generated through quantum random number generator (QRNG) are utilized that assists to overcome the limitations of pseudo-random number generator and leads to the highly immune data security mechanism. The efficacy of proposed model is evaluated through experimental results obtained over classical simulator along with real quantum computers accessed through the IBM Qiskit platform. The statistical analysis conducted on the resulting quantum states showcases a high degree of accurate measurements, thereby confirming the relevance of the proposed work.