The use of digital twin for timing intrusion detection in synchrophasor systems

The rapid deployment of synchrophasor measurement systems requires more thorough studies of their performance. One of the main concerns is timing intrusion (TI) attacks,which may target the ability to synchronize measurements from the power grid using global positioning system (GPS) time reference as one of the main features of these measurement systems. If TI occurs, many power system applications may be compromised. To detect these timing intrusions, a digital twin (DT) is developed to mirror a typical cyber-physical synchrophasor measurement system found in the field. Special attention is paid to the development of a flexible digital twin of the GPS timing receiver, PMU algorithm and communication channel to capture their sensitivity to TI attacks. Several use cases are designed to validate DT functionality, test the performance, and evaluate the impact of TI on an application.