Clustered Federated Learning for Generalizable FDIA Detection in Smart Grids with Heterogeneous Data

Abstract: False Data Injection Attacks (FDIAs) pose severe security risks to smart grids by manipulating measurement data collected from spatially distributed devices such as SCADA systems and PMUs. These measurements typically exhibit Non-Independent and Identically Distributed (Non-IID) characteristics across different regions, which significantly challenges the generalization ability of detection models. Traditional centralized training approaches not only face privacy risks and data sharing constraints but also incur high transmission costs, limiting their scalability and deployment feasibility. To address these issues, this paper proposes a privacy-preserving federated learning framework, termed Federated Cluster Average (FedClusAvg), designed to improve FDIA detection in Non-IID and resource-constrained environments. FedClusAvg incorporates cluster-based stratified sampling and hierarchical communication (client-subserver-server) to enhance model generalization and reduce communication overhead. By enabling localized training and weighted parameter aggregation, the algorithm achieves accurate model convergence without centralizing sensitive data. Experimental results on benchmark smart grid datasets demonstrate that FedClusAvg not only improves detection accuracy under heterogeneous data distributions but also significantly reduces communication rounds and bandwidth consumption. This work provides an effective solution for secure and efficient FDIA detection in large-scale distributed power systems.