Vulnerability Analysis of Weighted Indian Power Grid Network Based on Complex Network Theory

Abstract

In power grid (PG) networks some critical bus and transmission line has the major impact on the cascading failures and large-scale blackouts. In this work, we have investigated the vulnerability of Indian power grid (PG) and IEEE 118 bus for intentional and random attack strategies using complex network (CN) theory. We show that the PG’s are vulnerable to intentional attacks and robust to random failures. We apply eight different attack strategies to unweighted and weighted PG networks. Here our approach based on CN theory does not aim to focus on the detailed operation of a PG networks, rather it gives details about its structural vulnerability. We concluded that weighted network analysis could give more accurate result since the weight is related to the electrical concept of PG. This process can help to identify the most vulnerable transmission lines and nodes, whose protection can increase the robustness and reliability of any PG network.