# Generative AI for Critical Infrastructure in Smart Grids: A Unified Framework for Synthetic Data Generation and Anomaly Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08593 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08593/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [A systematic study of the class imbalance problem in convolutional neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.05381/) (2017)
- [Large Language Models for Forecasting and Anomaly Detection: A Systematic Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10350/) (2024)
- [ChatGPT and Other Large Language Models for Cybersecurity of Smart Grid Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05462/) (2023)
- [ChatGPT: Vision and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15323/) (2023)
- [DivTOD: Unleashing the Power of LLMs for Diversifying Task-Oriented Dialogue Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00557/) (2024)
- [Leveraging Conversational Generative AI for Anomaly Detection in Digital Substations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16692/) (2024)
- [Detecting Zero-Day Attacks in Digital Substations via In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16453/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In digital substations, security events pose significant challenges to the sustained operation of power systems. To mitigate these challenges, the implementation of robust defense strategies is critically important. A thorough process of anomaly identification and detection in information and communication technology (ICT) frameworks is crucial to ensure secure and reliable communication and coordination between interconnected devices within digital substations. Hence, this paper addresses the critical cybersecurity challenges confronting IEC61850-based digital substations within modern smart grids, where the integration of advanced communication protocols, e.g., generic object-oriented substation event (GOOSE), has enhanced energy management and introduced significant vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. Focusing on the limitations of traditional anomaly detection systems (ADSs) in detecting threats, this research proposes a transformative approach by leveraging generative AI (GenAI) to develop robust ADSs. The primary contributions include the suggested advanced adversarial traffic mutation (AATM) technique to generate synthesized and balanced datasets for GOOSE messages, ensuring protocol compliance and enabling realistic zero-day attack pattern creation to address data scarcity. Then, the implementation of GenAI-based ADSs incorporating the task-oriented dialogue (ToD) processes has been explored for improved detection of attack patterns. Finally, a comparison of the GenAI-based ADS with machine learning (ML)-based ADSs has been implemented to showcase the outperformance of the GenAI-based frameworks considering the AATM-generated GOOSE datasets and standard/advanced performance evaluation metrics.