energies Article A Case Study of an Industrial Power Plant under Cyberattack: Simulation and Analysis Marilena Stănculescu 1, * , Sorin Deleanu 2 , Paul Cristian Andrei 1 and Horia Andrei 3   Citation: St˘ anculescu, M.; Deleanu, S.; Andrei, P.C.; Andrei, H. A Case Study of an Industrial Power Plant under Cyberattack: Simulation and Analysis. Energies 2021, 14, 2568. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092568 Academic Editor: Igor Kotenko Received: 5 April 2021 Accepted: 27 April 2021 Published: 29 April 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Electrical Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania; paul.andrei@upb.ro 2 School of Applied Sciences and Technology, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Edmonton, AB T5G2R1, Canada; sorind@nait.ca 3 Doctoral School of Engineering Sciences, University Valahia Targoviste, 130004 Targoviste, Romania; hr_andrei@yahoo.com * Correspondence: marilena.stanculescu@upb.ro Abstract: For critical infrastructures, technological developments regarding real-time data trans- mission and processing improve the system’s operability and reliability. However, vulnerabilities are introduced in the case of implementing new remote access methods or where redundancy is low. At the national level, most critical infrastructures are connected, and, therefore, achieving a level of security and resilience is based on identifying a multitude of risks. In this respect, the reduction of risk to acceptable levels directly affects the quality of citizens’ lives and decreases losses in the industry. This study starts from the threats to power systems, namely cyberattacks, which are much more dangerous, although less visible, to operators, and almost invisible to the public or the media. From this point of view, it was proved that the most vulnerable parts of the power system were human–machine interfaces, electrical equipment, Surveillance, Control, and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. This paper’s main achievements include the simulation of cyberattacks on existing electrical equipment from a petrochemical plant (case study), which consists of modifying the remote data transmitted by the SCADA system. Two locations were submitted to simulated cyberattacks that were considered critical for the overall plant operation. Furthermore, the changes that occur following each fault resulting from the cyberattack and the influence of the electrical parameter changes upon the process flow were analyzed. Furthermore, by using Electrical Power System Anal- ysis Software—ETAP—the changes that occur following each fault due to the cyberattack and the influence of the electrical parameter changes upon the process flow were analyzed. By considering the two malfunction events, the resilience assessment of the system was analyzed. In the second case, only partial resilience action, up to 40%, restored the operability of the industrial power plant. Keywords: electro energetic system; critical infrastructure; SCADA; electric parameter; power transformer; simulation and analysis of cyber attack 1. Introduction The technological evolution recorded in the transmission and online processing of the parameters of power systems over the last ten years has determined significant improve- ments in power systems’ operability, control, and reliability. Concurrently, vulnerabilities arise due to both new methods of remote access and reduced redundancy. For this reason, almost all the hardware and software components of a power system are potentially critical infrastructures, exposed to physical or informatics events naturally occurring or intentionally provoked. Critical infrastructure includes the energy system (electricity, oil, or gas), the transportation system, the water supply, and energy distribution. Energies 2021, 14, 2568. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092568 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies