A Leader-Follower Game Theoretic Approach to Arrest Cascading Failure in Smart Grid

TL;DR

This paper introduces a leader-follower game theoretic approach to prevent cascading failures in smart grids by using dependency models and contingency lists, validated on IEEE bus systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel adaptive hardening technique based on game theory to arrest cascading failures, combining fast heuristic and ILP solutions for contingency analysis.

Findings

Heuristic and ILP solutions produce similar contingency lists for IEEE 14-Bus.

MIIM-based models yield more realistic damage predictions than IIM.

Adaptive hardening improves network resilience in larger IEEE 118-Bus systems.

Abstract

The Smart Grid System (SGS) is a joint network comprising the power and the communication network. In this paper, the underlying intra-and-interdependencies between entities for a given SGS is captured using a dependency model called Modified Implicative Interdependency Model (MIIM) [1]. Given an integer K, the K-contingency list problem gives the list of K-most critical entities, failure of which maximizes the network damage at the current time. The problem being NP complete [2] and owing to the higher running time of the given Integer Linear Programming (ILP) based solution [3], a much faster heuristic solution to generate an event driven self-updating K-contingency list [4] is also given in this paper. Based on the contingency lists obtained from both the solutions, this paper proposes an adaptive entity hardening technique based on a leader-follower game theoretic approach that arrests the cascading failure of entities in the SGS after an initial failure of entities. The validation of the work is done by comparing the contingency lists using both types of solutions, obtained for different K values using the MIIM model on a smart grid of IEEE 14-Bus system with that obtained by simulating the smart grid using a co-simulation system formed by MATPOWER and Java Network Simulator (JNS). The K-contingency list obtained for a smart grid of IEEE 14-Bus system also indicate that the network damage predicted by both the ILP based solution and heuristic solution using MIIM are more realistic compared to that obtained using another dependency model called Implicative Interdependency Model (IIM) [2]. Advantage of using the MIIM based heuristic solution is also shown in this paper when larger SGS of IEEE 118-Bus is considered. Finally, it is shown how the adaptive hardening helps in improving the network performance.