A Stackelberg Security Investment Game for Voltage Stability of Power Systems

TL;DR

This paper models a strategic game between an attacker and a defender in power systems to optimize voltage stability, proposing a novel equilibrium solution that balances costs and security constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a Stackelberg game framework with a modified Backward Induction method for power system security investment analysis.

Findings

Defender can maintain stability with sufficient security budget.

The proposed method effectively allocates resources under constraints.

Performance demonstrated on IEEE 9-bus and 39-bus systems.

Abstract

We formulate a Stackelberg game between an attacker and a defender of a power system. The attacker attempts to alter the load setpoints of the power system covertly and intelligently, so that the voltage stability margin of the grid is reduced, driving the entire system towards a voltage collapse. The defender, or the system operator, aims to compensate for this reduction by retuning the reactive power injection to the grid by switching on control devices, such as a bank of shunt capacitors. A modified Backward Induction method is proposed to find a cost-based Stackelberg equilibrium (CBSE) of the game, which saves the players' costs while providing the optimal allocation of both players' investment resources under budget and covertness constraints. We analyze the proposed game extensively for the IEEE 9-bus power system model and present an example of its performance for the IEEE 39-bus power system model. It is demonstrated that the defender is able to maintain system stability unless its security budget is much lower than the attacker's budget.