Cybersecurity for Smart Inverters: Guidelines for Residential and Light Commercial Solar Energy Systems

Published

December 20, 2024

Author(s)

Jeffrey Marron, Donald Faatz, Daniel Rebori-Carretero, Johnathan Wiltberger, Jim McCarthy, Nic Urlaub

Abstract

This report provides practical cybersecurity guidance for small-scale solar inverter implementations that are typically used in homes and small businesses. These guidelines are informed by a review of known smart inverter vulnerabilities documented in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), a review of information about known smart inverter cyber-attacks, and testing five example smart inverters. The report also provides recommendations to smart inverter manufacturers on the cybersecurity capabilities needed in their products to implement the seven guidelines. These recommendations build on the Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity capability baselines defined in NIST IR 8259A and IR 8259B by providing smart-inverter specific information for some of the baseline cybersecurity capabilities.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 8498

Report Number

8498

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8498

Local Download

Keywords

IoT cybersecurity capabilities, light commercial inverter, residential inverter, small-scale solar energy system, smart inverter cybersecurity

Citation

Marron, J. , Faatz, D. , Rebori-Carretero, D. , Wiltberger, J. , McCarthy, J. and Urlaub, N. (2024), Cybersecurity for Smart Inverters: Guidelines for Residential and Light Commercial Solar Energy Systems, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8498, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=959031 (Accessed December 21, 2024)