The use of PLANS and NetworkX in modeling power grid system failures

Abstract

The theoretical and practical aspects and results of simulations based on a specialized tool that is used in the energy industry were adressed. The previously discussed cases in the literature by taking into account the worst case and critical states of networks in terms of complex networks were extended. Using the Monte-Carlo method, the vulnerability of the power grid to node failures was investigated, both in terms of the use of specialized software, which is used in the power industry, and a tool for the analysis of complex networks graphs. We present the results obtained and the observed analogy between the results of the analysis performed in specialized software and the complex network graph analysis tool. It has been shown that the results obtained coincide for both software packages, even though their application focuses on slightly different aspects of system operation. Moreover, further possibilities of extending the research in this direction are proposed, taking into account not only the improvement of the method used, but also a significant increase in the size of the tested structure model.