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arXiv · 2608.09337

Economic Impact Assessment of Denial-of-Service and Time-Delay Attacks on Advanced Metering Infrastructure

Abstract

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) plays an important role in modern power systems by providing near real-time consumption data for operational planning and load estimation. Despite this, AMI communication networks are vulnerable to certain cyberattack types, such as denial-of-service (DoS) and time delay attacks (TDAs), which may compromise data availability. This paper evaluates the impact of these attack types on AMI communication using a Mininet-based simulation environment that implements a communication model inspired by the Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3) for communication among smart meters, data concentrators, and utility systems. Different cyberattack scenarios are analyzed, including communication delay, packet loss, combined degradation rate (D_rate), and concentrator failure, to evaluate their effects on network performance and data availability. The results indicate increased latency, higher communication unavailability rates, and reduced data reliability under attack conditions. In addition, the study correlates how communication degradation can result in potential uncertainties in energy demand estimation and provides estimates of the associated financial impacts on energy procurement, using electricity pricing data from the Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE). The experimental results reveal that a 500 ms delay increased the average RTT (Round-trip time) from 0.22 ms to 69.5 ms, while a 50% packet loss scenario resulted in 87 timeout events and a 5.31% communication degradation rate. Under a regional-scale deployment of 10,000 smart meters, this degradation could cause an estimated economic impact of $1,009/day under normal market conditions and up to $5,097/day during high-price events.

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BibTeXRIS

Lais Oliveira Krohl, Saurav Basnet, Ioannis Zografopoulos. 2026-08-10. Economic Impact Assessment of Denial-of-Service and Time-Delay Attacks on Advanced Metering Infrastructure. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09337

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