English

Power grids vulnerability: a complex network approach

Physics and Society 2009-03-23 v3

Abstract

Power grids exhibit patterns of reaction to outages similar to complex networks. Blackout sequences follow power laws, as complex systems operating near a critical point. Here, the tolerance of electric power grids to both accidental and malicious outages is analyzed in the framework of complex network theory. In particular, the quantity known as efficiency is modified by introducing a new concept of distance between nodes. As a result, a new parameter called net-ability is proposed to evaluate the performance of power grids. A comparison between efficiency and net-ability is provided by estimating the vulnerability of sample networks, in terms of both the metrics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.5278,
  title  = {Power grids vulnerability: a complex network approach},
  author = {S. Arianos and E. Bompard and A. Carbone and F. Xue},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.5278},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

16 pages, 3 figures. Figure 2 and table II modified. Typos corrected. Version accepted for publication in Chaos

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