Cyber-Resilience of Digitalized Power Systems with High DER Integration

Urban energy systems are undergoing transformative change as digitalization accelerates the integration of distributed energy resources, electrified transport, and advanced monitoring and control across city infrastructures. This evolution has ushered in highly interconnected distribution grids, reliant on sophisticated digital platforms like ADMS/DERMS, SCADA, and IoT-driven telemetry, delivering unprecedented efficiency and flexibility. However, this digital interconnectedness has also expanded the cyber-attack surface exponentially, intertwining not only grid components but also external city systems such as telecommunications, building management, and mobility networks. Traditional cybersecurity measures—often limited to technical solutions—have proven insufficient for capturing the full operational implications of cyber incidents, especially as these threats destabilize grid reliability, power quality, and critical system protection through cascading and cross-sector effects.Studies have increasingly revealed the vulnerability of digitized energy infrastructures to targeted cyberattacks and the risk of cascading failures across interdependent city systems. Initial progress has been achieved through advanced control strategies, quantitative risk modeling, and the emergence of simulation platforms. However, key knowledge gaps persist around the underlying mechanisms of cyber incident propagation, the interplay between cyber risks and operational priorities, and, critically, the validation of resilience strategies in real-world, context-rich environments. There is an urgent need for research that goes beyond technical analysis to develop meaningful, operationally grounded metrics, and to address resilience in the context of city-scale system-of-systems integration.This Research Topic aims to reconceptualize cybersecurity and resilience in urban smart grids as inherently operational challenges, situated at the dynamic intersection of power engineering and integrated city systems. The goal is to establish actionable cyber-resilience paradigms for urban grids with high levels of digitalization and DER penetration; to explicitly address interdependencies and cascading disruptions that extend beyond the grid itself; and to advance, evaluate, and validate practical strategies—spanning prevention, detection, mitigation, restoration, and fallback operation—that deliver measurable improvements in grid safety, reliability, critical service continuity, and restoration performance. Outcomes will be grounded in real-world scenarios and leveraged through credible platforms such as co-simulation, digital twins, and testbeds, ensuring practical relevance and industry alignment.This Research Topic primarily encompasses operational cyber-resilience in smart city energy systems, with an emphasis on interventions substantiated by measurable grid and interdependent infrastructure impacts. Submissions should address urban distribution grids and their integration with city-scale digital platforms. We welcome articles on, but not limited to, the following themes:- Urban smart grid threat landscape: mapping attack scenarios and analyzing impacts on reliability, stability, protection, and power quality- Security challenges in interconnected control platforms, IoT, data exchange, communications, and system-of-systems aggregation- Modeling and quantification of cascading and compounding cyber effects across city infrastructures (e.g., EV charging, telecoms, building management, public services)- Development and validation of resilience strategies for prevention, detection, response, mitigation, and degraded-mode operations during cyber events- Operational and restoration planning under cyber constraints, focusing on continuity of critical services- Benchmarking, metrics, and validation in simulation, digital twin, or hardware-in-the-loop/testbed environments- Case studies and utility-aligned research using real-world data or scenariosWe invite original research articles, reviews, case studies, methods, and perspective pieces that advance knowledge and practical resilience in digitally interconnected urban energy systems. Topic editors: Seerin Ahmad, Dr. SREEKANTH K J, Irfan Alam Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79378/cyber-resilience-of-digitalized-power-systems-with-high-der-integration