Topological Analysis and Mitigation Strategies for Cascading Failures in Power Grid Networks

Recently, there has been a growing concern about the overload status of the power grid networks, and the increasing possibility of cascading failures. Many researchers have studied these networks to provide design guidelines for more robust power grids. Topological analysis is one of the components of system analysis for its robustness. This paper presents a complex systems analysis of power grid networks. First, the cascading effect has been simulated on three well known networks: the IEEE 300 bus test system, the IEEE 118 bus test system, and the WSCC 179 bus equivalent model. To extend the analysis to a larger set of networks, we develop a network generator and generate multiple graphs with characteristics similar to the IEEE test networks but with different topologies. The generated graphs are then compared to the test networks to show the effect of topology in determining their robustness with respect to cascading failures. The generated graphs turn out to be more robust than the test graphs, showing the importance of topology in the robust design of power grids. The second part of this paper concerns the discussion of two novel mitigation strategies for cascading failures: Targeted Load Reduction and Islanding using Distributed Sources. These new mitigation strategies are compared with the Homogeneous Load Reduction strategy. Even though the Homogeneous Load Reduction is simpler to implement, the Targeted Load Reduction is much more effective. Additionally, an algorithm is presented for the partitioning of the network for islanding as an effort towards fault isolation to prevent cascading failures. The results for island formation are better if the sources are well distributed, else the algorithm leads to the formation of superislands.