An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids

Security incidents in digital substations can create notable difficulties for the consistent and stable functioning of power systems. To address these issues, implementing defense and mitigation strategies is essential. Identifying and detecting irregularities in information and communication techno...

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Main Authors: Aydin Zaboli, Yong-Hwa Kim, Junho Hong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11008602/
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author Aydin Zaboli
Yong-Hwa Kim
Junho Hong
author_facet Aydin Zaboli
Yong-Hwa Kim
Junho Hong
author_sort Aydin Zaboli
collection DOAJ
description Security incidents in digital substations can create notable difficulties for the consistent and stable functioning of power systems. To address these issues, implementing defense and mitigation strategies is essential. Identifying and detecting irregularities in information and communication technology (ICT) is vital to maintaining secure interactions between devices in digital substations. This paper proposes a task-oriented dialogue (ToD) system for anomaly detection (AD) in multicast message datasets, such as generic object-oriented substation events (GOOSE) and sampled values (SV) in digital substations using generative AI (GenAI). The proposed ToD model demonstrates significant advantages over the human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach, particularly in error rate, adaptability, and scalability. Specifically, compared to HITL, the ToD model achieves a reduction in false positives (FPs) of up to 20% and enhances the accuracy of AD by up to 17.5%, resulting in a general accuracy of 97.5%. Moreover, the system shows a substantial improvement in advanced evaluation metrics, including a Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of 0.95, highlighting its robust capability to accurately differentiate between normal and anomalous events. The ToD model adapts effectively to new attack scenarios without extensive retraining, unlike traditional machine learning (ML) models or HITL, which require frequent updates. This adaptability significantly reduces implementation time compared to HITL, as the model requires fewer manual interventions and updates. These findings are supported by a comparative analysis using standard and advanced evaluation metrics. The generation and extraction of datasets of IEC 61850 communications were performed using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbed, ensuring the robustness of the proposed approach in practical scenarios.
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spelling doaj-art-bcbf650fa8cd4c2d97f956e407bbe6332025-08-20T03:05:45ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113899979001610.1109/ACCESS.2025.357188111008602An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart GridsAydin Zaboli0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9052-1851Yong-Hwa Kim1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2183-5085Junho Hong2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5035-8260Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan–Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USADepartment of AI Data Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South KoreaDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan–Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, USASecurity incidents in digital substations can create notable difficulties for the consistent and stable functioning of power systems. To address these issues, implementing defense and mitigation strategies is essential. Identifying and detecting irregularities in information and communication technology (ICT) is vital to maintaining secure interactions between devices in digital substations. This paper proposes a task-oriented dialogue (ToD) system for anomaly detection (AD) in multicast message datasets, such as generic object-oriented substation events (GOOSE) and sampled values (SV) in digital substations using generative AI (GenAI). The proposed ToD model demonstrates significant advantages over the human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach, particularly in error rate, adaptability, and scalability. Specifically, compared to HITL, the ToD model achieves a reduction in false positives (FPs) of up to 20% and enhances the accuracy of AD by up to 17.5%, resulting in a general accuracy of 97.5%. Moreover, the system shows a substantial improvement in advanced evaluation metrics, including a Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of 0.95, highlighting its robust capability to accurately differentiate between normal and anomalous events. The ToD model adapts effectively to new attack scenarios without extensive retraining, unlike traditional machine learning (ML) models or HITL, which require frequent updates. This adaptability significantly reduces implementation time compared to HITL, as the model requires fewer manual interventions and updates. These findings are supported by a comparative analysis using standard and advanced evaluation metrics. The generation and extraction of datasets of IEC 61850 communications were performed using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbed, ensuring the robustness of the proposed approach in practical scenarios.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11008602/Cybersecuritydigital substationsgenerative AIGOOSEhuman-in-the-loopanomaly detection
spellingShingle Aydin Zaboli
Yong-Hwa Kim
Junho Hong
An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
IEEE Access
Cybersecurity
digital substations
generative AI
GOOSE
human-in-the-loop
anomaly detection
title An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
title_full An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
title_fullStr An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
title_full_unstemmed An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
title_short An Advanced Generative AI-Based Anomaly Detection in IEC61850-Based Communication Messages in Smart Grids
title_sort advanced generative ai based anomaly detection in iec61850 based communication messages in smart grids
topic Cybersecurity
digital substations
generative AI
GOOSE
human-in-the-loop
anomaly detection
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11008602/
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