18,013 research outputs found
Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependency
Increased coupling between critical infrastructure networks, such as power
and communication systems, will have important implications for the reliability
and security of these systems. To understand the effects of power-communication
coupling, several have studied interdependent network models and reported that
increased coupling can increase system vulnerability. However, these results
come from models that have substantially different mechanisms of cascading,
relative to those found in actual power and communication networks. This paper
reports on two sets of experiments that compare the network vulnerability
implications resulting from simple topological models and models that more
accurately capture the dynamics of cascading in power systems. First, we
compare a simple model of topological contagion to a model of cascading in
power systems and find that the power grid shows a much higher level of
vulnerability, relative to the contagion model. Second, we compare a model of
topological cascades in coupled networks to three different physics-based
models of power grids coupled to communication networks. Again, the more
accurate models suggest very different conclusions. In all but the most extreme
case, the physics-based power grid models indicate that increased
power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability. This is opposite from
what one would conclude from the coupled topological model, in which zero
coupling is optimal. Finally, an extreme case in which communication failures
immediately cause grid failures, suggests that if systems are poorly designed,
increased coupling can be harmful. Together these results suggest design
strategies for reducing the risk of cascades in interdependent infrastructure
systems
Spatial and performance optimality in power distribution networks
(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Complex network theory has been widely used in vulnerability analysis of power networks, especially for power transmission ones. With the development of the smart grid concept, power distribution networks are becoming increasingly relevant. In this paper, we model power distribution systems as spatial networks. Topological and spatial properties of 14 European power distribution networks are analyzed, together with the relationship between geographical constraints and performance optimization, taking into account economic and vulnerability issues. Supported by empirical reliability data, our results suggest that power distribution networks are influenced by spatial constraints which clearly affect their overall performance.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Robust Decentralized Secondary Frequency Control in Power Systems: Merits and Trade-Offs
Frequency restoration in power systems is conventionally performed by
broadcasting a centralized signal to local controllers. As a result of the
energy transition, technological advances, and the scientific interest in
distributed control and optimization methods, a plethora of distributed
frequency control strategies have been proposed recently that rely on
communication amongst local controllers.
In this paper we propose a fully decentralized leaky integral controller for
frequency restoration that is derived from a classic lag element. We study
steady-state, asymptotic optimality, nominal stability, input-to-state
stability, noise rejection, transient performance, and robustness properties of
this controller in closed loop with a nonlinear and multivariable power system
model. We demonstrate that the leaky integral controller can strike an
acceptable trade-off between performance and robustness as well as between
asymptotic disturbance rejection and transient convergence rate by tuning its
DC gain and time constant. We compare our findings to conventional
decentralized integral control and distributed-averaging-based integral control
in theory and simulations
Sparsity-Based Error Detection in DC Power Flow State Estimation
This paper presents a new approach for identifying the measurement error in
the DC power flow state estimation problem. The proposed algorithm exploits the
singularity of the impedance matrix and the sparsity of the error vector by
posing the DC power flow problem as a sparse vector recovery problem that
leverages the structure of the power system and uses -norm minimization
for state estimation. This approach can provably compute the measurement errors
exactly, and its performance is robust to the arbitrary magnitudes of the
measurement errors. Hence, the proposed approach can detect the noisy elements
if the measurements are contaminated with additive white Gaussian noise plus
sparse noise with large magnitude. The effectiveness of the proposed
sparsity-based decomposition-DC power flow approach is demonstrated on the IEEE
118-bus and 300-bus test systems
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
- …