Topological analysis of the power grid and mitigation strategies against cascading failures

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the topological features of power grids and evaluates mitigation strategies to prevent cascading failures, using simulations on standard test systems and network generation techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a network generator for power grid topologies and compares mitigation strategies, highlighting the effectiveness of targeted load reduction methods.

Findings

Targeted load reduction is more effective than homogeneous reduction.

Network topology significantly influences grid robustness.

Simulation results demonstrate the impact of mitigation strategies.

Abstract

This paper presents a complex systems overview of a power grid network. In recent years, concerns about the robustness of the power grid have grown because of several cascading outages in different parts of the world. In this paper, cascading effect has been simulated on three different networks, the IEEE 300 bus test system, the IEEE 118 bus test system, and the WSCC 179 bus equivalent model, using the DC Power Flow Model. Power Degradation has been discussed as a measure to estimate the damage to the network, in terms of load loss and node loss. A network generator has been developed to generate graphs with characteristics similar to the IEEE standard networks and the generated graphs are then compared with the standard networks to show the effect of topology in determining the robustness of a power grid. Three mitigation strategies, Homogeneous Load Reduction, Targeted Range-Based Load Reduction, and Use of Distributed Renewable Sources in combination with Islanding, have been suggested. The Homogeneous Load Reduction is the simplest to implement but the Targeted Range-Based Load Reduction is the most effective strategy.