Digital Transformation for Power Substation Network Security and Space Effiviency Through Virtual Protective Relay

Abstract

This dissertation investigates a novel approach to enhance the performance and security of digital substations. Additionally, it reduces the footprint of the substation and lowers maintenance and operational costs. Two technologies are presented as part of this study: First, the Lightweight Virtual Protective Relay (LVPR), which uses virtualization to abstract the hardware and enable CPU isolation. In this approach, it ensures hardware dedication for application-based virtualization that demands security, speed, and reliability. Second, the Digital Twin-Relay Assisted Security (DTRAS), which is a digital twin for digital relays, inherits its protection functions as well as the observability of the power system dynamics and the communication link. The proposed DTRAS requires a fast processing algorithm that enables detecting any anomalies in the system. As such, it is developed with low-level programming languages to meet the expectations for detection and mitigation.