Analysis of critical infrastructure interactions

The modern power infrastructure has evolved from small isolated circuits into an expansive interconnected system that is dependent on multiple supporting infrastructures. One of the most significant and potentially detrimental supporting infrastructures to interact with power systems is telecommunications. Currently there are no established analytic techniques that enable system operators or planners to analyze the interactions that occur at the seam between these two critical infrastructures.;Until the late 1960's there were few interactions between the power and telecommunications infrastructures. This changed with the Northeastern blackout of 1965 which began the large scale integration of the two infrastructures. For the following 20 years the addition of communications systems increased the overall reliability of power systems and allowed for new operational paradigms. However, within the past 20 years there have been an increasing number of blackouts that involve elements of the telecommunications infrastructure. This is due in part to the increased system level integration that has occurred without a corresponding increase in analysis.;This dissertation presents a method for analyzing and assessing potential vulnerabilities that affect the interface of the power and telecommunications infrastructures. The presented method is used to analyze two existing Special Protection Systems as well as the topology identification component of the North East Pacific Times-series Underwater Networked Experiment Energy Management System. These systems are analyzed for potential vulnerabilities that affect the interface of the power and telecommunications infrastructures and could initiate or contribute to catastrophic blackouts. While it is not possible to stop the occurrence of catastrophic blackouts the proposed vulnerability assessment method can help to reduce their rate of occurrence and minimize their severity when they do occur.