Power system simulation is a common computing technology that provides a flexible and controlled environment for analysing system security behaviour and validating control strategies for real-world grids. Environmental sustainability targets for the UK?s net-zero carbon emissions are driving the transition of power systems towards large-scale integration of renewable and distributed resources. To ensure sustainable and secure operation under high renewable penetration, advanced digital monitoring and control techniques are essential to mitigate risks. The increasing integration of distributed energy resources, power electronics, and advanced communication infrastructures has reshaped the grid into a tightly coupled cyber-physical system characterised by real-time monitoring, data-driven control, and distributed coordination. This digitalisation fundamentally changes how system behaviour must be analysed and validated. In such new power system simulation environments, system behaviour is no longer determined solely by physical dynamics, but also by the reliability of information flows, including their availability, integrity, and timeliness. Cyber-physical disturbances and threats, including sensor spoofing, communication delays, and data manipulation, can propagate through closed-loop control structures and directly affect system stability. This tight interdependence between cyber and physical layers necessitates a cross-domain, system-level simulation approach. This article explores the role of cyber-physical simulation in enabling realistic and scalable evaluation of modern power systems. It first outlines the transition toward cyber-physical power system architectures and the resulting operational complexities. It then highlights the limitations of conventional simulation approaches, which are limited in capturing cross-domain interactions between physical processes and cyber infrastructure. Building on this, the article presents an integrated cyber-physical simulation framework that models power system dynamics, communication networks, and control systems, with support for cyber-physical security analysis. Finally, an illustrative cyber-physical simulation platform is introduced as a practical realisation of the proposed framework, integrating the digital simulators OPAL-RT, hardware-based SYNDEM Smart Grid Kits, and communication network simulators, demonstrating how such a simulation platform can provide cyber-physical analysis for power system security applications.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)