Phasor measurement unit selection for unobservable electric power data integrity attack detection

Electric power system operators make critical decisions based on remote measurements. If the measurements are compromised, the decisions made on the basis of the bad measurements could lead to critical consequences. Of particular concern are unobservable attacks where compromised measurements are not flagged as erroneous by bad data detection algorithms. Secure measurement devices, such as phasor measurement units (PMUs), can help to recognize these attacks. This paper presents an algorithm based on integer programming for the optimal placement of PMUs to detect unobservable electric power SCADA data integrity attacks. The algorithm can also be used to identify minimal sets of existing PMUs whose data is needed to detect unobservable bad data attacks. Practical examples drawn from the power engineering literature are used to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm.