A cyber-layer based on weighted average consensus in blockchain environment for accurate sharing of power systems' dynamic states

Sharing the dynamic states among power system generators is crucial for wide-area monitoring, decentralized control, and protection of the prospective smart grid. However, this sharing process is subject to cyber-physical contingency conditions, which limits its accuracy. This paper proposes a framework that incorporates a cyber-layer with the power system to ensure accurate sharing of the generators' dynamic states. The proposed framework utilizes a weighted average consensus mechanism within a blockchain environment. The consensus ensures that the communication links/data among generator buses are reliable in both directions and that any link/data failure is detected to guarantee the validity, and hence accuracy of the shared generators' states. Moreover, a smart contract at each generator applies the proposed consensus mechanism and credits the validator generator bus that creates the next block in the states' blockchain after achieving the consensus. Finally, the proposed framework is tested on the standard IEEE 3-generator 9-bus power system under data contingency conditions. The generators' speed states are tested, while the other states can be verified in a similar manner. Simulation results show the ability of the proposed framework to ensure accurate sharing of the generators' speed states and to detect possible cyber-attacks, compared to the case without using the proposed framework.