Cyber-physical electrical energy systems: challenges and issues

Cyber-physical electrical energy systems (CPEES) combine computation, communication and control technologies with physical power system, and realize the efficient fusion of power, information and control. This paper summarizes and analyzes related critical scientific problems and technologies, which are needed to be addressed with the development of CPEES. Firstly, since the co-simulation is an effective method to investigate infrastructure interdependencies, the co-simulation platform establishment of CPEES and its evaluation is overviewed. Then, a critical problem of CPEES is the interaction between energy and information flow, especially the influence of failures happening in information communication technology (ICT) on power system. In order to figure it out, the interaction is analyzed and the current analysis methods are summarized. For the solution of power system control and protection in information network environment, this paper outlines different control principles and illustrates the concept of distributed coordination control. Moreover, mass data processing and cluster analysis, architecture of communication network, information transmission technology and security of CPEES are summarized and analyzed. By solving the above problems and technologies, the development of CPEES will be significantly promoted.