Risk-based Classical Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) of Microgrid Cyber-physical Energy Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a risk-based FMEA approach for microgrid cyber-physical systems, assessing failure modes of physical and cyber components to enhance reliability and security.

Contribution

It presents a novel risk assessment method using FMEA tailored for microgrid systems, incorporating a new risk priority calculation and graphical risk evaluation.

Findings

Effective identification of critical failure modes in microgrids.

A new risk priority number calculation method.

Graphical risk matrix for system reliability assessment.

Abstract

Modern microgrids are networked systems comprising physical and cyber components for networking, computation, and monitoring. These cyber components make microgrids more reliable but increase the system complexity. Therefore, risk assessment methods are an imperative technology for cyber-physical systems to ensure safe and secure operations. The authors propose a reliability approach that utilizes the failure modes of power and cyber network key components to perform the risk analysis in microgrids. In this work, the authors have used the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) approach for risk assessment of microgrid systems and determine the influence of various failure modes on their performance. FMEA is one of the most effective methods to assess the risk involving the cyber components. It is the method of examining components, modules, and subsystems to determine failure modes in a system and their causes and consequences. A novel approach is proposed to calculate risk priority numbers based on factors like severity, occurrence, and detection. A risk matrix is calculated from the proposed FMEA worksheet, which acts as a graphical representation for evaluating components risk based on risk priority number or criticality metrics.