Analysis of the structural vulnerability of the interconnected power grid of continental Europe with the Integrated Power System and Unified Power System based on extended topological approach

摘要

Power systems as one of the key infrastructures play a crucial role in any country’s economy and social life. Anlarge-scale blackout can affect all sectors in a society such as industrial, commercial, residential, and essentialnpublic services. However, the frequency of large-scale blackouts across the world is not being reduced,nalthough advanced technology and huge investment have been applied into power systems. Given a singlenblackout, it is possible to analyze the causes with the traditional engineering methods. What we want to donis not to explain the causes of blackouts but to find what are the most critical elements of the power systemnto improve the resilience of the system itself. As blackout can happen in different load conditions, we do notnwant a method that depends on the load/generation level. We want a method independent from these factors:nThis is the structural perspective.nWhen the interconnection between European and Russian power grids will create the largestninterconnected power grid throughout the world in terms of the scale, transmission distance, and involvedncountries, analyzing the vulnerability of a large-scale power grid will be useful to maintain its reliablenand secure operation. To analyze the vulnerability of the interconnected power grid, in this article, we firstncreated the interconnected transmission network between continental Europe and the Commonwealth ofnIndependent States (CIS) and Baltic countries; then, the structural vulnerability of the interconnected powerngrid was analyzed from a topological point of view using our proposed extended topological method, whichnincorporates some electrical engineering characteristics into complex network methodology. We found thatnthese power grids of continental Europe, the Baltic states, and the CIS countries can benefit from the interconnectionnbecause the interconnected power grid can not only improve the overall network performance ofnthese power grids in the Baltic states and the CIS countries but also increase their structural robustness.nCopyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.