Augmenting Zero Trust Network Architecture to enhance security in virtual power plants

Abstract

Zero Trust Network Architecture implementation is gaining popularity in the ICT sector to defend and deter cyber threats or cyber crime. Considering the architecture’s ability, it is unlikely that a single compromised endpoint in the zero-trust networks could spread laterally, infecting the whole network.This provides us with the ability to adopt the architecture in the energy sector. The popularity of the distributed generators helps us beself-reliant on the power and enables a consumer to supply the power to the grid. The pool of these small generators constitutes a virtual power plant. With this arrangement, its network is also exposed to security challenges. Protecting these physical systems, data protection, and information privacy becomes critical. Motivated by this convergence, this paper aims to present a comprehensive Zero trust security architecture to help reduce the risks and help secure the physical systems and ensure privacy and data protection.

Keywords

• Zero trust architecture
• Zero trust networks
• Virtual power plant
• Distributed generators
• Data protection