Influence of enhanced interconnecting links on cascading failures in smart grid

Abstract

A smart grid is an interdependent system of its electricity network and data communication network. Failures in either of networks could cause cascading failures to both networks and threaten the stability of the whole smart grid system. The interdependence between a power grid and a communication network can be represented using graph theory as unidirectional or directional inter-edges that connect both networks together. Optimizing the allocation of these interlinks can alleviate the severity of cascading failures and effectively enhance the robustness of the system. In this paper, we propose a practical smart grid model as two mutual dependent complex networks with improved inter-links allocation strategy, which is enhancing a fraction of communication nodes with backup power supply. Because of the enhanced communication nodes, the proposed system is more robust against random failures, which is proved by case studies.