Towards a Realistic Model for Failure Propagation in Interdependent Networks

Modern networks are becoming increasingly interdependent. As a prominent example, the smart grid is an electrical grid controlled through a communications network, which in turn is powered by the electrical grid. Such interdependencies create new vulnerabilities and make these networks more susceptible to failures. In particular, failures can easily spread across these networks due to their interdependencies, possibly causing cascade effects with a devastating impact on their functionalities. In this paper we focus on the interdependence between the power grid and the communications network, and propose a novel realistic model, HINT (Heterogeneous Interdependent NeTworks), to study the evolution of cascading failures. Our model takes into account the heterogeneity of such networks as well as their complex interdependencies. We compare HINT with previously proposed models both on synthetic and real network topologies. Experimental results show that existing models oversimplify the failure evolution and network functionality requirements, resulting in severe underestimations of the cascading failures.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to be published in conference proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC 2016), Kauai, US

Planning Sensitivities for Building Contingency Robustness and Graph Properties into Large Synthetic Grids

Interest in promoting innovation for large, high-voltage power grids has driven recent efforts to reproduce actual system properties in synthetic electric grids, which are fictitious datasets designed to be large, complex, realistic, and totally public. This paper presents new techniques based on system planning sensitivities, integrated into a synthesis methodology to mimic the constraints used in designing actual grids. This approach improves on previous work by explicitly quantifying each candidate transmission line’s contribution to contingency robustness, balancing that with geographic and topological metrics. Example synthetic grids build with this method are compared to actual transmission grids, showing that the emulated careful design also achieves observed complex network properties. The results shed light on how the underlying graph structure of power grids reflects the engineering requirements of their design. Moreover, the datasets synthesized here provide researchers in many fields with public power system test cases that are detailed and realistic

The Impact of Incorporating Wind Energy in the Electric Grid

In this paper we investigate the impact of increasing the penetration of wind generation with real variability on the risk to, and robustness of, the power transmission grid using a dynamic model of the power transmission system (OPA). There are three timescales of variability discussed but this paper will focus on the impact of two. It is found that with different fractions and distributions of wind generation and central generation, varied dynamics and risk are possible. One important parameter is the fraction of the total power demand supplied by the wind generation. It is found that the risk has a minimum in fraction of wind power supplied, after which the risk increased as the wind power penetration increases. In the same networks, decreasing the number of central generators without decreasing their power supplied in general increases the risk after a critical minimum number of generators is reached