Enhancing IEC 62351 to Improve Security for Energy Automation in Smart Grid Environments

Information security has gained tremendous importance for energy distribution and energy automation systems over the last years. Standards like IEC61850 offer standardized communication services and standardized data models for communication in energy automation. IEC 61850 is flanked by the standard IEC 62351 that especially addresses security and specifies technical requirements which have to be met by vendors. Especially, vendors that cover the entire energy automation chain with their product portfolio face new demanding challenges imposed by new use cases that come with the rise of the Smart Grid. This paper describes the current state of the standardization of IEC 62351, gives an overview of current and new use cases, and discusses potential enhancements of the standard to address new use cases. The enhancements allow multiple parallel distinguishable sessions based on MMS and proper authentication as well as authorization.