Project Grant 2219703

This three-year, $110,851 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering program aims to develop a cyber resilient 5G-enabled virtual power system to address growing power demands. Specifically, the awardee, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, will design and implement a smart artificial intelligence-based microinverter for pole-mounted solar power systems with energy storage, connected to low-voltage distribution networks. Data from the microinverters will train predictive models to better manage the system for improved performance. A secure 5G communication protocol will enable uninterrupted data flow between photovoltaic, battery, microinverter components and the supervisory control and data acquisition system. Based on prior cyberattack datasets, the project will also design a machine learning-based security framework to detect cyberattacks on the 5G-enabled supervisory control and data acquisition-controlled virtual power plant network and explore mitigation solutions. Guidelines will help secure physical systems while ensuring privacy and data protection.