Cybersecurity Challenges and Resilience Strategies in Smart Grids and Microgrids: A Comprehensive Review

The turnaround of the conventional power systems into intelligent Smart Grids and Microgridshas brought in unmatched reliability, flexibility, and efficiency. Nevertheless, this development has beenassociated with the sacrifice of being exposed to cyber threats since information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) are widely integrated. The microgrids, specifically, are susceptible since they useadaptive protection and distributed control strategies that are based on real-time communication and dataintegrity. With methods of cyberattacks changing to false data injection (FDI) and time synchronizationattacks (TSA) to stealth attacks and coordinated attacks that guarantee the resilience of protection andsynchronization processes, it becomes vital.The current review paper is a complete survey of the latest findings in the area of cyber security threats,vulnerabilities, and resilience in Smart Grids and Microgrids. We review 15 major articles investigatingvarious aspects of the issue such as adaptive protection mechanisms, cyber-physical vulnerability, eventdriven resilient control frameworks, and mitigation strategies of both DC and AC microgrids. Simulationbased validations, technical challenges of deploying out into the real world, and new solutions combiningmodal analysis, distributed observers, and machine learning are also of interest to us.What is emphasized in the findings is how the principles of cyber-resilient design are very important indynamic grid environments. The review can be used as a basis by researchers and practitioners working onensuring the next generation of the energy systems and keeping their adaptive and autonomous functions inthe context of various and changing threat landscapes.