  Operating a modern power grid reliably in case of SCADA/EMS failure or amid
difficult times like COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging task for grid
operators. In [11], a PMU-based emergency generation dispatch scheme has been
proposed to help the system operators with the supply and demand balancing;
however, its realization highly relies on the control center infrastructure for
computing and communication. This work, rather than using the on-premises
server and dispatch communication system, proposes and implements a
cloud-centric serverless architecture to ensure the operation continuity
regardless of local infrastructure's availability and accessibility. Through
its prototype implementation and evaluation at ISO New England, the solution
has demonstrated two major advantages. Firstly, the cloud infrastructure is
independent and fault-tolerant, providing grid monitoring and control
capability even when EMS loses the corresponding functionality or when
operators need to work remotely away from the control center. Secondly, the
overall design is event-driven using serverless cloud services in response to
the SCADA/EMS failure event. Thanks to "serverless", the burden of the server
provisioning and maintenance can be avoided from the user side. The cost of
using public cloud services for this solution is extremely low since it is
architected and implemented based on the event-driven Function-as-a-Service
(FaaS) model. This work also develops a comprehensive cyber security mechanism
to comply with critical infrastructure requirements for the power grid, which
can serve as an exemplary framework for other grid operators to secure their
cloud services.
