How Network Topology Affects the Strength of Dangerous Power Grid Perturbations

Abstract

Reasonably large perturbations may push a power grid from its stable synchronous state into an undesirable state. Identifying vulnerabilities in power grids by studying power grid stability against such perturbations can aid in preventing future blackouts. We use two stability measures $\unicode{x2014}$ stability bound, which deals with a system's asymptotic behaviour, and survivability bound, which deals with a system's transient behaviour, to provide information about the strength of perturbations that destabilize the system. Using these stability measures, we have found that certain nodes in tree-like structures have low asymptotic stability, while nodes with a high number of connections generally have low transient stability.