Dynamical heterogeneity and universality of power-grids

TL;DR

This paper investigates the heterogeneity and synchronization phenomena in large European and North American high-voltage power grids, revealing universal patterns and complex dynamics like frustrated synchronization and Chimera states.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of power grid heterogeneity, topology, and synchronization, introducing empirical evidence of universal distributions and complex dynamical states.

Findings

Heavy-tailed distributions of power capacities and loads are similar across grids.

Community structures and topological measures show strong similarities.

Empirical data reveal q-Gaussian frequency heterogeneities related to super-statistics.

Abstract

While weak, tuned asymmetry can improve, strong heterogeneity destroys synchronization in the electric power system. We study the level of heterogeneity, by comparing large high voltage (HV) power-grids of Europe and North America. We provide an analysis of power capacities and loads of various energy sources from the databases and found heavy tailed distributions with similar characteristics. Graph topological measures, community structures also exhibit strong similarities, while the cable admittance distributions can be well fitted with the same power-laws (PL), related to the length distributions. The community detection analysis shows the level of synchronization in different domains of the European HV power grids, by solving a set of swing equations. We provide numerical evidence for frustrated synchronization and Chimera states and point out the relation of topology and level of synchronization in the subsystems. We also provide empirical data analysis of the frequency heterogeneities within the Hungarian HV network and find q-Gaussian distributions related to super-statistics of time-lagged fluctuations, which agree well with former results on the Nordic Grid.