ECE314: Electric Grid Security and Resilience [KAUST]
ECE314: Electric Grid Security and Resilience [KAUST]
Course Information
Division: CEMSE
Course number: ECE 314
Academic Semester: Spring 2024-2025
Location: Building 9-Room 4229
Meeting days/time: Tue 08:30-11:30
Instructor: Charalambos Konstantinou (aka Harrys)
Email: first.last at kaust.edu.sa
Course Description
The electric power grid is a complex cyber-physical energy system that forms the backbone of critical infrastructure. The technology of electric power system operations and control has undergone significant changes during the past several years. These technological advancements within the grid improve reliability and capacity, but can introduce new vulnerabilities (e.g., with a growing number of connected embedded devices incorporating communication and control capabilities). The focus of this course is on electric power systems security and resilience in the context of adversarial threats. It examines the landscape of modern/smart/intelligent grid systems covering analysis and operation of the traditional power grid, the new challenges, and the emerging technologies that make the grid vulnerable. The emphasis is on the electric grid analysis, operation, and management, control architecture, and software systems.
Goals & Objectives
At the end of the course, the students will have a state-of-the-art understanding of the relevant issues in the field of security and resilience in the areas of electric power grid operation and control. This class is a mixture of an advanced graduate course and a graduate seminar. Each week the topic on the electric power grid will be covered by the instructor while the cybersecurity and resilience component of the course will be reviewed from classical and contemporary research papers. Thus, by the end of the course, students should be able to (1) comprehend and critique relevant research papers in the area of electric power grid security and resilience, (2) present their research both orally in a concise way and within the allotted time as well as in writing, (3) defend the research approach, design decisions, and the evaluation methods in a discussion, and (4) moderate a discussion after a research presentation.
Required Knowledge / Prerequisites
Knowledge about power system analysis and basic computing systems security, or instructor consent, is required. Familiarity with (or willingness to learn) programming or simulation tools to implement the project (e.g., Matlab/Simulink, PSCAD/RSCAD, DigSilient PowerFactory, PSAT, CVX, AMPL, GAMS, Python, etc.).
Reference Texts
Lecture notes and assigned research papers.
Method of Evaluation
50.00% - Research project report
30.00% - Scientific review article presentations
10.00% - Oral presentation
10.00% - Homework
Nature of Assignments
The class consists of two main activities: (1) content delivery on power systems topics, and (2) papers and discussions. We will read 1-2 papers for each week and discuss them in class after the topic on electric power grid is introduced. Each student is expected to review and present 3-5 papers within the semester. In addition, the course includes a semester-long project. The final project takes the form of a research paper written on the topic of the course, adhering to all the formal requirements of PES transaction papers or main system security conferences. All students are strongly encouraged to aim to produce results of that quality. The project paper will be evaluated in a similar manner to a paper submission, with formatting similar to that of the papers read in the class. The self-contained (i.e., include ALL dependencies) code of the work must be uploaded in GitHub and share with username: ckonstantinou. The directory should be also referenced in the report and it should contain the code must include a README file with a step-by-step guide on how to compile and run the provided code. The final report and code submission will be evaluated from the following four aspects:
(1) Quality of Subject: The specific problems/issues investigated by the paper must be meaningful and are not artificial. They are expected to have some technical significance to deserve investigation.
(2) Quality of Contribution: The paper must contain original contributions that are innovative and have a potential impact to academic research, industry application or both;
(3) Quality of Research: The research work conducted to support, validate, or demonstrate the paper’s contribution shall have certain degree of technical depth and scientific rigorousness;
(4) Quality of Presentation: The paper’s texts and illustrations shall be able to communicate the contents effectively.
Course Policies
All methods of evaluations are required.
Students will not receive extensions. Late assignments (not exams) will be accepted. Students will be penalized 20% for every late day (day determined per the deadline of the submission time).