Improving robustness of power systems via optimal link switch-off

Cascading failures happened in power grids degrade the robustness of such complex systems. In the cascading process, links can be critical for the propagation of failures. Then It is possible that switching off some links may help the network improve its robustness. In this paper, with the consideration of both the electrical characteristics and complex network structure, we try to assess how the robustness of the IEEE 118 Bus can be improved by switching off a set of transmission links. An evolution algorithm is applied to achieve the optimal performance. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can effectively relieve the damage to the power system caused by cascading failures at a low cost.