Relaxation Based Modeling of GMD Induced Cascading Failures in PowerModelsGMD.jl

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel convex relaxation-based modeling approach for simulating GMD-induced cascading failures in power systems, implemented in an open-source software tool for analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a relaxation-based modeling framework for GMD-induced failures, integrating dc and ac power flow approximations within PowerModelsGMD.jl.

Findings

Successfully implemented on a synthetic test network.

Demonstrates the effectiveness of convex relaxation in modeling GMD effects.

Provides a new tool for analyzing geomagnetic hazard impacts.

Abstract

A major risk of geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) is cascading failure of electrical grids. The modeling of GMD events and cascading outages in power systems is difficult, both independently and jointly, because of the many different mechanisms and physics involved. This paper introduces a relaxation based modeling of GMD-induced cascading failures:~the dc approximation-based DCSIMSEP solver was adapted to simulate cascading as a result of GMDs, the full set of ac power flow equations were relaxed to guarantee optimality, and the reactive power losses were modeled while keeping the problem convex. The developed algorithm was implemented in PowerModelsGMD.jl - an open-source software specifically designed to model and analyze geomagnetic hazards - and demonstrated to work on the RTS-GMLC-GIC-EAST synthetic test network.