17,755 research outputs found
Robustness of the European power grids under intentional attack
The power grid defines one of the most important technological networks of
our times and sustains our complex society. It has evolved for more than a
century into an extremely huge and seemingly robust and well understood system.
But it becomes extremely fragile as well, when unexpected, usually minimal,
failures turn into unknown dynamical behaviours leading, for example, to sudden
and massive blackouts. Here we explore the fragility of the European power grid
under the effect of selective node removal. A mean field analysis of fragility
against attacks is presented together with the observed patterns. Deviations
from the theoretical conditions for network percolation (and fragmentation)
under attacks are analysed and correlated with non topological reliability
measures.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Vulnerability Analysis of Modern Electric Grids: A Mathematical Optimization Approach
Electrical power must be transmitted through a vast and complicated network of interconnected grids to arrive at one’s fingertips. The US electric grid network and its components are rapidly advancing and adapting to the advent of smart technologies. Production of electricity is transitioning to sustainable processes derived from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to decrease dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels. These newly pervasive natures of smart technology and the variable power supply of renewable energy introduce previously unexamined vulnerabilities into the modern electric grid. Disruption of grid operations is not uncommon, and the effects can be economically and societally severe. Thus, a vulnerability analysis can provide decision makers with the ability to characterize points of improvement in the networks they supervise.
This thesis performs a vulnerability analysis of electric grid operations including storage. This vulnerability analysis is achieved through a set of numerical experiments on a multi-period optimal power flow model including storage and variable demand. This model resulted in an analysis indicating storage is helpful in increasing resilience in networks with excess generation, no matter how severe the disruption. Networks with constrained generation benefit little, if at all, from storage. This analysis allows us to conclude careful implementation is the best way to improve electric grid security in the face of widespread use of renewable energy and smart technology
Power Grid Network Evolutions for Local Energy Trading
The shift towards an energy Grid dominated by prosumers (consumers and
producers of energy) will inevitably have repercussions on the distribution
infrastructure. Today it is a hierarchical one designed to deliver energy from
large scale facilities to end-users. Tomorrow it will be a capillary
infrastructure at the medium and Low Voltage levels that will support local
energy trading among prosumers. In our previous work, we analyzed the Dutch
Power Grid and made an initial analysis of the economic impact topological
properties have on decentralized energy trading. In this paper, we go one step
further and investigate how different networks topologies and growth models
facilitate the emergence of a decentralized market. In particular, we show how
the connectivity plays an important role in improving the properties of
reliability and path-cost reduction. From the economic point of view, we
estimate how the topological evolutions facilitate local electricity
distribution, taking into account the main cost ingredient required for
increasing network connectivity, i.e., the price of cabling
MATCASC: A tool to analyse cascading line outages in power grids
Blackouts in power grids typically result from cascading failures. The key
importance of the electric power grid to society encourages further research
into sustaining power system reliability and developing new methods to manage
the risks of cascading blackouts. Adequate software tools are required to
better analyze, understand, and assess the consequences of the cascading
failures. This paper presents MATCASC, an open source MATLAB based tool to
analyse cascading failures in power grids. Cascading effects due to line
overload outages are considered. The applicability of the MATCASC tool is
demonstrated by assessing the robustness of IEEE test systems and real-world
power grids with respect to cascading failures
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