Topological Analysis of Power Grid to Identify Vulnerable Transmission Lines and Nodes

Abstract

Electrical energy generation and distribution systems are good examples of complex systems. This M.Tech thesis is dedicated to the study of Complex Network Theory with applications in power systems for the analysis of vulnerability in power grid both for unweighted and weighted network. In Power system the vulnerability has been a key issue since a decade. A simple component failure may cause cascades of failures across the power grid and lead to a large blackout. A number of recent large blackouts in Europe, North America and India have emphasized the importance of understanding the dynamics. In this thesis Power grids have been studied for their structural vulnerabilities using purely topological approaches. The focus of the study is for a complete topological analysis of power grid based on different mode of attack. Analysis has been done by modeling power grid as a topological network and applying the concepts from graph theory. The work can be broadly classified into two parts: first is vulnerability analysis of unweighted small world network and second is analysis of weighted network in terms of homogeneous and heterogeneous network. In particular, this thesis propose two new method to identify vulnerable line for both the network and compare the topological structure of unweighted small world network with weighted network. The simulation has been done for IEEE 39, 118 and 300 bus. It is demonstrated by simulations that failure of transmission lines identified as critical, has a major impact on the performance and structure of the network unlike the failure of random connections which have no effect.