Structural Vulnerability of the North American Power Grid

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the North American power grid using network theory to understand its robustness and vulnerabilities, especially highlighting the critical role of key substations in maintaining overall functionality.

Contribution

It introduces a network-based approach to assess the power grid's vulnerability, emphasizing the importance of global network properties in local failure impacts.

Findings

The power grid is generally robust to most disruptions.

Disruptions at key substations significantly impair grid functionality.

Global network properties influence local failure effects.

Abstract

The magnitude of the August 2003 blackout affecting the United States has put the challenges of energy transmission and distribution into limelight. Despite all the interest and concerted effort, the complexity and interconnectivity of the electric infrastructure have so far precluded us from understanding why certain events happened. In this paper we study the power grid from a network perspective and determine its ability to transfer power between generators and consumers when certain nodes are disrupted. We find that the power grid is robust to most perturbations, yet disturbances affecting key transmision substations greatly reduce its ability to function. We emphasize that the global properties of the underlying network must be understood as they greatly affect local behavior.