Analysis of cascading failure in electric grid based on power flow entropy

Large-scale blackouts are an intrinsic drawback of electric power transmission grids. Here we propose a concept of power flow entropy to quantify the overall heterogeneity of load distribution and then investigate the relationship between the power flow entropy and cascading failure. Simulation results, from the small-world 300-node test system and the IEEE 300-bus system, show that the power flow entropy has close relations with the cascading failure in terms of both the dynamic propagation course and the static blackout size. Particularly, at the early stage of failure spreading the potential large blackout can be identified according to the power flow entropy. The power flow entropy can serve as an index not only for long-term planning, but also for short-term operational defense to large-scale blackouts.

[1]  R. Solé,et al.  Optimization in Complex Networks , 2001, cond-mat/0111222.

[2]  R. Solé,et al.  Information Theory of Complex Networks: On Evolution and Architectural Constraints , 2004 .

[3]  Christian Posse,et al.  Evaluating North American Electric Grid Reliability Using the Barabasi-Albert Network Model , 2004, nlin/0408052.

[4]  I. Dobson.  Where is the edge for cascading failure?: challenges and opportunities for quantifying blackout risk , 2007, 2007 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting.

[5]  Ian Dobson,et al.  Examining criticality of blackouts in power system models with cascading events , 2002, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[6]  Réka Albert,et al.  Structural vulnerability of the North American power grid. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[7]  D.S. Kirschen,et al.  A probabilistic indicator of system stress , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.

[8]  A. Motter,et al.  Fluctuation-driven capacity distribution in complex networks , 2008, 0805.3725.

[9]  Ying-Cheng Lai,et al.  Complex networks: Dynamics and security , 2005 .

[10]  Massimo Marchiori,et al.  A topological analysis of the Italian electric power grid , 2004 .

[11]  Adilson E Motter,et al.  Cascade-based attacks on complex networks. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[12]  Massimo Marchiori,et al.  Model for cascading failures in complex networks. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[13]  Jie Wu,et al.  Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness , 2003 .

[14]  Zhejing Bao,et al.  Dynamics of load entropy during cascading failure propagation in scale-free networks , 2008 .

[15]  Ian Dobson,et al.  Cascading dynamics and mitigation assessment in power system disturbances via a hidden failure model , 2005 .

[16]  Adilson E Motter.  Cascade control and defense in complex networks. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[17]  Daniel S. Kirschen,et al.  Criticality in a cascading failure blackout model , 2006 .