Title: Placement of distributed generation using electrical measures to improve the robustness of power grid networks

Authors: Sakshi Pahwa; Ruth D. Miller; Caterina M. Scoglio

Addresses: Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA ' Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA ' Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

Abstract: A lot of importance is being given to distributed generation (DG) these days. However, the use of DG has been limited to the distribution network. In this work, we use DG placement in the transmission network as a method to enhance the robustness of the transmission grid against cascading failures. We use electrical measures - electrical centrality and node significance - to find the locations for DG placement. Vulnerability analysis has been done on the IEEE 57- and 118-node networks, using power flow and overload cascade models, before and after DG placement to assess the improvement in the robustness of the grid. Comparison is also made with the results of a method discussed in literature, called method II in this paper. We found that our method shows an improvement of 9% and approximately 20% for the 57- and 118-node networks, respectively and also performed better than method II for all cases.

Keywords: power grid networks; critical infrastructures; network science; distributed generation placement; electrical measures; electrical centrality; electrical node significance; robustness; vulnerability analysis; blackouts; cascading failures; mitigation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2015.073842

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2015 Vol.11 No.4, pp.345 - 364

Received: 15 Feb 2014
Accepted: 22 Jul 2014
Published online: 24 Dec 2015 *

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