C-DAX: Cyber-secure Data and Control Cloud for Power Grids (C-DAX)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Destination: ICT for a low carbon economy
Action type: Collaborative project
Countries involved: Netherlands,Germany,United Kingdom,Switzerland,Belgium,Belgium,Netherlands,Sweden
Call:  (FP7-ICT-2011-8, 2011)
Start date: 2012-10-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 41.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4124903.0
EU funding (EUR): 2931000.0
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

The progressive penetration of conventional and renewable distributed generation is driving major changes in the whole power systems infrastructure justifying the introduction of more intelligence, in particular, in power distribution networks. The information infrastructure will play a central role as future power systems cannot be supported by centralized information infrastructures on which today’s power systems rely. Within this context, the C-DAX project proposes a Cyber-secure DAta and Control Cloud for future power distribution networks as an integrated communication and information infrastructure. C-DAX exploits the properties of novel, information-centric networking (ICN) architectures that are by design more secure, resilient, scalable, and flexible than conventional information systems. C-DAX will be tailored to the specific needs of smart grids for efficient support of massive integration of renewables and a heterogeneous set of co-existing smart grid applications. Realistic and pertinent use cases from different domains (low-voltage, medium-voltage, and trading) will be used to guide the design and provide validation criteria. Further, C-DAX will provide added value to current protocols and data models used within the power systems domain for monitoring and control purposes (e.g. IEC 61850, IEEE C37.118, etc.). C-DAX concepts will be proposed for standardisation (i.e. M490, IEC TC57, ETSI M2M, Cigre, IETF) and industry interest groups. The C-DAX architecture aims at providing for smart grids: (i) the flexibility to integrate renewable energy resources of different sizes to support communication with individual consumers to facilitate the growing number of active subjects connected to electrical grids; (ii) the secure, synchronized and timely delivery of measurement and control data to ensure stable and reliable supply, (iii) the security and reliability required by distributed control systems and (iv) add a resilient cyber-secure layer to currently used protocols in the electrical grids infrastructure. C-DAX will be implemented as a software prototype that will be extensively tested and optimized. C-DAX software will be validated in multiple phases: (i) through modelling, simulation and mathematical analysis, (ii) functional tests in a laboratory IT environment, (iii) integrated in field equipment, deployed into real-time hardware in the loop emulation test bed, and (iv) in the Alliander’s MS LiveLab. This last validation will represent the main proof of the C-DAX applicability in a live electricity network with real world monitoring and control requirements.

Keywords: smart grid,information-centric networking,renewable energy,security,distributed energy resources,smart distribution networks