The growing demand for microgrids (MGs) and networked microgrids (NMGs) is driven by the prospects of improved reliability of energy supply and enhanced resilience of the energy grid in changing energy demands. The integration of data communications and industrial control systems has enabled NMGs to provide real-time monitoring and refined control for applications such as energy load balancing. These systems rely on current public-key cryptosystems to secure data communications based on certain computational hardness assumptions. However, the advent of quantum computing poses a significant threat to these cryptosystems because quantum algorithms, such as Shor’s algorithm, have demonstrated that quantum computers are capable of cracking these cryptosystems in practical time. To address this emerging challenge, quantum secure technologies such as postquantum cryptography and quantum key distribution are being explored as complementary approaches to achieve quantum-resilient security. This article reviews the ideas of quantum-secured NMGs (QS-NMGs) and identifies the relevant quantum-cryptographic technologies for QS-NMGs. The study will help scientists, engineers, and policymakers identify limitations of the current literature and discover future research avenues.
The growing demand for microgrids (MGs) and networked microgrids (NMGs) is driven by the prospects of improved reliability of energy supply and enhanced resilience of the energy grid in changing energy demands. The integration of data communications and industrial control systems has enabled NMGs to provide real-time monitoring and refined control for applications such as energy load balancing. These systems rely on current public-key cryptosystems to secure data communications based on certain computational hardness assumptions. However, the advent of quantum computing poses a significant threat to these cryptosystems because quantum algorithms, such as Shor’s algorithm, have demonstrated that quantum computers are capable of cracking these cryptosystems in practical time. To address this emerging challenge, quantum secure technologies such as postquantum cryptography and quantum key distribution are being explored as complementary approaches to achieve quantum-resilient security. This article reviews the ideas of quantum-secured NMGs (QS-NMGs) and identifies the relevant quantum-cryptographic technologies for QS-NMGs. The study will help scientists, engineers, and policymakers identify limitations of the current literature and discover future research avenues.
The classical key distribution systems used for data transmission in networked microgrids (NMGs) rely on mathematical assumptions, which however can be broken by attacks from quantum computers. This paper addresses this quantum-era challenge by using quantum key distribution (QKD). Specifically, the novelty of this paper includes 1) a QKD-enabled communication architecture it devises for NMGs, 2) a real-time QKD- enabled NMGs testbed it builds in an RTDS environment, and 3) a novel two-level key pool sharing (TLKPS) strategy it designs to improve the system resilience against cyberattacks. Test results validate the effectiveness of the presented strategy, and provide insightful resources for building quantum-secure NMGs.
Communication has always played a vital role in microgrids to maintain reliable operations and achieve great benefits and will be even more critical with the increasing deployment of renewable energies, information technologies, and real-time automation and control systems. The existing classical cryptographic methods for securing microgrid communication, however, rely on mathematical assumptions, which are vulnerable to attacks from quantum computers. This article reviews the current status of developing quantum-secure microgrids, namely microgrids that are secure against attacks from quantum computers. We introduce some potential issues associated with applying existing quantum cryptography methods in the context of microgrids and provide future perspectives to make quantum security more practical in microgrids.
The recent advancement of smart grid systems, integrating cyber-physical systems with information and communication technologies enables real-time monitoring, control, and data transmission. However, these operations often inherently insecure communication infrastructures increasing exposure to cyber threats and data breaches. Consequently, cryptographic authenticated and key agreement protocols address cyber-attacks, threats, and vulnerabilities to protect data privacy and security in smart grid. Meanwhile, quantum computing progression is rapidly footprinted in real-world application thus quantum computing-based Grover's and Shor’s algorithm is capable for breaking classical cryptographic algorithms mathematical advances. Therefore, this review explores the adaptability of quantum computing, examines its impact on classical cryptography vulnerabilities, and highlights the role of quantum cryptography in enhancing security and scalability of smart grid cyber-physical systems. Accordingly, a comparative analysis was conducted to assess the security and performance of Rivest-Shamir Adleman, elliptic curve cryptography and digital signature algorithms against quantum cryptography for highlighting their respective strengths and limitations in quantum era context. This review provides a foundation of future researchers for integrate quantum technology and develop quantum-resilient solutions that overcome the constraints of classical cryptography.
The integration of information and communication technologies has introduced cybersecurity challenges to microgrid (MG) apart from bringing more flexibility, reliability, and resilience. Especially in the upcoming quantum era, the existing cryptographic systems are vulnerable to attacks from quantum computers. Motivated by these challenges, this article proposes a quantum-key-distribution (QKD)-based MG distributed control framework for cybersecurity enhancement. To defend the side-channel attacks and make the framework practical enough for industrial applications, measurement-device-independent QKD (MDI-QKD) is introduced. The following contributions are made in this work. 1) A novel QKD-based quantum-secure control architecture is established to assure the data transmission security in MG distributed control. 2) MDI-QKD with asymmetric protocol is used to form a scalable QKD network for MG control. 3) A method for fast parameter optimization based on deep neural network (DNN) is proposed to adjust the parameters in QKD systems in real-time. Simulations are carried on a 13-bus MG to demonstrate the working principles of the proposed control scheme. The test results also prove the feasibility of the DNN-based parameter optimizer.
The emergence of quantum computing presents both significant opportunities and critical challenges for modern cybersecurity. While quantum systems promise advances in science, engineering, and artificial intelligence, they also pose a substantial threat to classical cryptographic techniques such as RSA, ECC, and other widely deployed public-key mechanisms. Quantum algorithms including Shor’s and Grover’s are expected to compromise these systems, placing sensitive data, financial infrastructures, and national security at risk. This paper examines the growing field of quantum-resistant, or post-quantum, cryptography with a focus on identifying constructions capable of withstanding quantum attacks. It provides a systematic overview of major post-quantum cryptographic families, including lattice-based, hash-based, code-based, multivariate, and isogeny-related schemes, and evaluates their current security assumptions, practical efficiency, and readiness for real-world deployment. Beyond technical considerations, the paper highlights the organizational and workforce implications of transitioning to quantum-safe systems, emphasizing the need for coordinated global standards and sustained cybersecurity training. This study underscores that building a quantum-secure digital future requires not only adopting resilient algorithms but also strengthening collaborative, adaptive, and proactive security practices.
The threats are existential to the traditional cryptosystems of public keys, including RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), due to the rapid progress in quantum computing. Such algorithms as the Shor and Grover algorithms prove that as soon as large scale quantum computers are achieved, these classical cryptographic protocols will not provide any privacy and integrity to online communication. This has created an emergency to find post-quantum cryptography (PQC), or quantum-safe cryptography, which will resist attacks by both classical and quantum attackers. The paper is a review of the latest research and development in post-quantum cryptographic algorithms and their implementation in current security systems. We organize quantum-safe methods into significant organizations such as lattice-based, hash-based, multivariate polynomial-based and code-based encrypted communications. Each type has been evaluated critically based on computational efficiency, key sizes, speed of encryption/decryption and security proofs. The survey also examines the current standardization activities happening in the world and especially the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) PQC competition, which lists candidate algorithms that have advanced to standard adoption. Besides this, the paper addresses hybrid cryptographic designs that use both classical and post-quantum bases in ensuring a seamless migration in the transition phase. Internet security protocols like TLS, VPNs and blockchain consensus as applications of PQC are examined in detail. Lastly, we pinpoint open research issues, which include creating lightweight PQC to support resource-constrained IoT devices, balancing performance and strong security assurances, and interoperability between the new PQC algorithms and existing infrastructures. Through detailed survey we inform the future of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on the preparation of the post-quantum era of secure digital communications.