UK-Australia Centre in a Secure Internet of Energy: Supporting Electric Vehicle Infrastructure at the "Edge" of the Grid

Started

Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Energy system analysis)
Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Other Supporting Data)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting
Other (Energy technology information dissemination)

Professor R Ranjan
Sch of Computin
Newcastle University

Standard

EPSRC

01 July 2022

01 May 2026

46 months

£1,511,081

Energy

North East

International Centre to Centre

Professor R Ranjan, Sch of Computin, Newcastle University

Professor PT Blythe, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University
Professor P Burnap, Computer Science, Cardiff University
Dr L M Cipcigan, Engineering, Cardiff University
Mr PM James, Sch of Engineering, Newcastle University
Dr J Liang, Engineering, Cardiff University
Dr G Morgan, Sch of Computin, Newcastle University
Dr C Patsios, Electrical, Electronic & Computer Eng, Newcastle University
Professor O Rana, Computer Science, Cardiff University
Dr N Saxena, Computer Science, Cardiff University
Dr G Theodorakopoulos, Computer Science, Cardiff University
Professor A van Moorsel, Sch of Computin, Newcastle University

Project Contact, Welsh Automotive Forum
Project Contact, Thales UK Limited
Project Contact, Cardiff Council
Project Contact, NR Electric UK Limited
Project Contact, Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Project Contact, University of Surrey
Project Contact, China Electric Power Research Institute, China
Project Contact, Welsh Assembly Government
Project Contact, Northern Powergrid
Project Contact, PA Consultancy Services Ltd
Project Contact, Cyber Security Research Centre Limited
Project Contact, FASTNED UK Limited
Project Contact, North East Automotive Alliance
Project Contact, WSP Group (Global)
Project Contact, DXC Technology
Project Contact, Envision Digital UK Ltd
Project Contact, University of Sydney, Australia
Project Contact, Department for Transport
Project Contact, Siemens plc (UK)
Project Contact, University College London
Project Contact, SP Energy Networks

The Internet of Energy (IoE) is a paradigm towards achieving a "zero-carbon" society by optimising electrical energy usage, especially for emerging loads such as Electric Vehicles. The paradigm is a recognition that integrating the internet of things with energy sources and demand loads, enables real-time processing of data streams to support actionable decision support. The aim of this centre-to-centre collaboration is to conduct fundamental multi-disciplinary research in the cyber resilience of future IoE systems. As electric vehicles are likely to make the greatest use of battery capacity in the future, they will play a key role in the IoE infrastructures.According to the "Global EV Outlook 2020" report (https://www.iea.org/reports/global-evoutlook-2020, International Energy Agency), Electric Vehicle sales topped 2.1M globally in 2019, surpassing 2018 - already a record year - to boost the stock to 7.2M electric cars. As technological progress in the electrification of two/three-wheelers, buses and trucks advances and the market for them grows, electric vehicles are expanding significantly. This growth is further amplified through government regulations, e.g. phasing out of diesel and petrol vehicles. This percentage is also likely to grow both in the United Kingdom and Australia. To meet climate-change goals, half of UK cars must be electric by 2030 (according to the UK government). Similarly, the Australian government (https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/) predicts that by 2040, electric vehicles (EVs) are projected to account for 70% to 100% of new vehicle sales. To meet the demand of the growing EV population, UK and Australian governments are ramping up the installation of charging infrastructure. For example, there are now more than 35,000 charge point connectors across the UK in over 13,000 locations - with around 7,000 charge point connectors added in 2020 alone.This makes electrical vehicles significant energy consumers in the IoE, with their batteries also providing the potential for energy storage in times of emergency or unexpected surges in demand. However, this benefit can only be effectively realised if we can secure the interaction between Electric Vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure and the national grid. Since 2016, the number of cyber incidents involving vehicles has increased by 605%, with incident rates doubling on a year to year basis (according to 2020 Upstream security's global automotive cybersecurity report). The target of such cyber-attacks is not only private EVs but also commercial EVs.This proposal combines workstreams on attack modelling, data synthesis, attack generation and validation of these using testbeds across the UK and Australia. A simulator will be developed to support a number of "what-if" investigations in cyber resilience for EVs to be carried out. Partners in this proposal have expertise in cybersecurity, power electronics, electrical vehicles, artificial intelligence and distributed computing, and have extensive prior experience in multi-site collaborations. The IoE (cyber-physical) security theory developed in this project will also contribute to accelerated adoption of EV energy prosumers at the edge of the power grid.This proposal will also provide an opportunity for experienced and early career researchers to work collectively on the challenges identified above. A "future leaders" training programme will be developed as part of this proposal to create an "ideas exchange" community across students and academic faculty between the UK and Australian partners. Our industry partners will also be engaged through workshops and "sandpit" events to identify use cases that have industry relevance and which could provide the basis for future startups (in collaboration with entrepreneurship teams at our institutions). The shared testbeds and simulation environment developed will also provide a legacy on completion of this work.

03/08/22