Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Power system vulnerability'

Modern power systems are now stepping into the post-restructuring era, in which utility industries as well as ISOs (Independent System Operators) are involved. Attention needs to be paid to the reliability study of power systems by both the utility companies and the ISOs. An uninterrupted and high quality power is required for the sustainable development of a technological society. Power system blackouts generally result from cascading outages. Protection system hidden failures remain dormant when everything is normal and are exposed as a result of other system disturbances. This dissertation provides new methods for power system vulnerability analysis including protection failures. Both adequacy and security aspects are included. The power system vulnerability analysis covers the following issues: 1) Protection system failure analysis and modeling based on protection failure features; 2) New methodology for reliability evaluation to incorporate protection system failure modes; and, 3) Application of variance reduction techniques and evaluation. A new model of current-carrying component paired with its associated protection system has been proposed. The model differentiates two protection failure modes, and it is the foundation of the proposed research. Detailed stochastic features of system contingencies and corresponding responses are considered. Both adequacy and security reliability indices are computed. Moreover, a new reliability index ISV (Integrated System Vulnerability) is introduced to represent the integrated reliability performance with consideration of protection system failures. According to these indices, we can locate the weakest point or link in a power system. The whole analysis procedure is based on a non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation method. In reliability analysis, especially with Monte Carlo simulation, computation time is a function not only of a large number of simulations, but also time-consuming system state evaluation, such as OPF (Optimal Power Flow) and stability assessment. Theoretical and practical analysis is conducted for the application of variance reduction techniques. The dissertation also proposes a comprehensive approach for a TTC (Total Transfer Capability) calculation with consideration of thermal, voltage and transient stability limits. Both steady state and dynamic security assessments are included in the process of obtaining total transfer capability. Particularly, the effect of FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) devices on TTC is examined. FACTS devices have been shown to have both positive and negative effects on system stability depending on their location. Furthermore, this dissertation proposes a probabilistic method which gives a new framework for analyzing total transfer capability with actual operational conditions.

Power systems around the world may be under the threat of extreme conditions such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks. To find the most severe condition in the static sense, systematic methods based on optimization have been developed. However, until now, there is no systematic way to find the most severe contingency in the dynamic sense. The thesis proposes such a systematic approach. The method adopts a two-step “screening-and-ranking” procedure similar to the one employed in conventional dynamic security analysis. In the “screening” step, transmission lines are screened using two criteria. The first criterion is based on critical eigen-sensitivity with respect to single line outages. A transmission line is selected only if one of the critical eigenvalues has a large sensitivity to the outage of this line. The second criterion is based on a topology analysis searching for cut-sets in the system. A transmission line is selected if it is a member of a system cut-set with high power imbalance ratio. In the “ranking” step, time-domain analysis is performed on all the combinations of the lines screened by the first step, to determine their real dynamic impact on the system. Relays for generators, loads, and transmission lines are set-up so as to capture possible cascading events after the initial disturbance. Test results on the One Area IEEE96 system show that the set of critical lines selected by the proposed screening scheme is dependent on the system operating conditions. The screening step can reduce the contingency number significantly, which will alleviate the computation burden in the ranking step by a large margin. The most severe contingencies in term of load shedding were in most cases identified by the proposed method. The merit of the method is its simplicity, which makes it applicable to the analysis of N-2 and N-3 transmission line contingencies. Limitations of the method, such as the possibility of missing the more disruptive c
Les réseaux électriques peuvent être sous la menace de conditions extrêmes, tels que désastres naturels et attentats terroristes. Pour déterminer la condition la plus sévère en état stationnaire, des méthodes systématiques utilisant des techniques d'optimisations ont été développées. Jusqu'à présent il n'existe cependant pas de méthodes systématiques pour déterminer quel défaut est le plus sévère en régime dynamique. Cette thèse propose une telle méthode. Elle utilise une approche en deux étapes, « triage et classement », similaire à celle utilisée dans une analyse de sécurité dynamique conventionnelle. Dans l'étape de triage, les lignes de transport d'électricité sont sélectionnées selon deux critères. Le premier est basé sur la sensibilité critique des valeurs propres par rapport à la perte d'une seule ligne. Une ligne de transport est sélectionnée seulement si une des valeurs propres critiques a une sensibilité élevée à la perte de cette ligne. Le second critère est basé sur une analyse topologique et recherche des ensembles de coupure dans le système. Une ligne de transport est sélectionnée si elle appartient à un ensemble de coupure avec un déséquilibre de puissance élevé. Dans l'étape de classement, une analyse temporelle est effectuée sur toutes les combinaisons possibles des lignes de transport sélectionnées dans la première étape, afin de déterminer leurs véritables impacts dynamiques sur le réseau électrique. Les relais de protection sont représentés. Les résultats des simulations sur le système test IEEE96 démontrent que l'étape de triage peut réduire le nombre de défauts de manière significative, ce qui peut alléger considérablement le fardeau de calcul dans l'étape de classement. Les défauts les plus sévères en termes de délestage étaient identifiés dans la plupart des cas par la méthode proposée. L'intérêt de la méthode réside dans sa simplicité,$

Disturbances in the supply of electric power can have serious implications for everyday life as well as for national (homeland) security. A power outage can be initiated by natural disasters, adverse weather, technical failures, human errors, sabotage, terrorism, and acts of war. The vulnerability of a system is described as a sensitivity to threats and hazards, and is measured by P (Q(t) > q), i.e. the probability of at least one disturbance with negative societal consequences Q larger than some critical value q, during a given period of time (0,t]. The aim of the thesis is to present methods for quantitative vulnerability analysis of electric power delivery networks to enable effective strategies for prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery to be developed. Paper I provides a framework for vulnerability assessment of infrastructure systems. The paper discusses concepts and perspectives for developing a methodology for vulnerability analysis, and gives examples related to power systems. Paper II analyzes the vulnerability of power delivery systems by means of statistical analysis of Swedish disturbance data. It is demonstrated that the size of large disturbances follows a power law, and that the occurrence of disturbances can be modeled as a Poisson process. Paper III models electric power delivery systems as graphs. Statistical measures for characterizing the structure of two empirical transmission systems are calculated, and a structural vulnerability analysis is performed, i.e. a study of the connectivity of the graph when vertices and edges are disabled. Paper IV discusses the origin of power laws in complex systems in terms of their structure and the dynamics of disturbance propagation. A branching process is used to model the structure of a power distribution system, and it is shown that the disturbance size in this analytical network model follows a power law. Paper V shows how the interaction between an antagonist and the defender of a power system can be modeled as a game. A numerical example is presented, and it is studied if there exists a dominant defense strategy, and if there is an optimal allocation of resources between protection of components, and recovery.
QC 20100831

Electrical power transmission systems are essential to the economy and well-being of modern societies. The systems consist of power generating facilities, substations, and supervisory control and data acquisition, which are inter-connected through transmission lines arranged within a high dimensional network (i.e., large amount of edges and nodes). Efficiency and service quality are influenced by reliability of this network. Therefore, identification of critical components and vulnerability analysis become paramount, in particular, in regions where seismic activity is significant. In this research a novel methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of power transmission systems is developed. The analysis is carried out from the perspective of both the system’s form (i.e., topological-electrical importance of elements) and system’s strength (i.e., probability of failure). The form combines the electrical properties of the network (e.g., electrical distance, power flow) with the systems approach via hierarchical network decomposition. On the other hand, the strength focuses on evaluating the probability of failure by means of the physical consequences of multiple earthquakes scenarios. Therefore, the vulnerability measure presents a trade–off between strength and form. Sensitivity analysis is carried out, where the influence of each perspective (i.e., form and strength) in the vulnerability measure is exhibited. Finally, different techniques for identification of critical components are compared with the proposed methodology. The results showed that the proposed approach exhibit features that provide a better understanding of seismic vulnerability of power systems than traditional approaches.

Volcanic eruptions are powerful natural events which impact strongly on society. As human populations grow and expand into volcanically active areas, their exposure and vulnerability to volcanic hazards is also increasing. Of all volcanic hazards, ashfall is the most likely to impact lifelines because of the large areas affected. The widespread dispersal of ash can cause large-scale disruption of vital infrastructure services, aviation, and primary production. Electric power supply is arguably the most crucial of modern infrastructure systems, especially considering the dependence of other sectors on electricity to maintain functionality. During and immediately after ashfalls, electric power systems are vulnerable to a number of impacts, but disruption from volcanic ash-induced insulator flashover (unintended, disruptive electrical discharge) is most common. This thesis investigates the vulnerability of electric power systems to volcanic ashfall by examining impacts to the different sectors of the modern power system and exploring appropriate mitigation strategies. Analogue laboratory trials using a pseudo (synthetic) ash are undertaken to verify the environmental, volcanological and electrical parameters that most affect electrical conductivity and therefore the flashover mechanism in these experiments. While dry ash is highly resistant to the flow of electric current, increasing moisture content, soluble salt load, and compaction (bulk density) will reduce this resistance and, in turn, increase the potential for flashover. Volcanic ash is an acute form of airborne pollution for areas downwind of active volcanoes. Results from laboratory experiments in this thesis suggest that insulator pollution (volcanic ash) performance (dielectric strength) is primarily dictated by (1) the conductivity of the ash, and (2) insulator material, profile (shape) and dimensioning. Composite polymer insulators tested herein effectively minimise sinusoidal leakage current and partial discharge activity and also exhibit higher pollution performance when compared to ceramic equivalents. Irrespective of insulator material, however, the likelihood of flashover increases significantly once the bottom surface of suspension insulator watersheds become contaminated in wet ash. The thesis investigates the vulnerability (hazard intensity/damage ratio) of electric power systems to volcanic ashfall hazards. Identification, analysis, and reduction of the risk of ashfall impacts to power networks is explored as a part of holistic volcanic risk assessment. The findings of the thesis contribute to the readiness, response and recovery protocols for large electric power systems in volcanic disasters; which directly affects the functional operation and economics of industrial and commercial society.

Large interruptions of power supply in the transmission system have considerable impact on modern society. The goal for the transmission system operator (TSO) is to prevent and mitigate such events with optimal decisions in design, planning, operation and maintenance. Identifying critical power components for system reliability provides one important input to this decision-making. This thesis develops quantitative component reliability importance indices applicable for identifying critical components in real transmission systems. Probabilistic models with component failure statistics are combined with detailed power system models evaluated with the AC power flow technique. In the presented method each system component is assigned three importance indices based on outage events expected probability and consequence to (i) reduced system security margin, (ii) interrupted load supply and (iii) disconnected generation units. By ranking components by each of the three interests, a more complete view of the risks to system reliability can be assessed than if, as traditionally, only (ii) is modelled. The impact on security margin is studied in well established critical transfer sections (CTS) supervised by the TSO. TSOs set the CTSs limits [MW] based on deterministic security criteria, with regard to thermal, voltage level, and system stability limits, and the CTSs' condition at post-contingency state is in the method used as an indicator of the system security margin. The methodology is extended with three indices modified to quantify the component importance for common-cause events initiated by acts of sabotage. The developed methods are applied on a significant part of the Great Britain transmission system, modelling 7000 components and 107 substation layouts. The study includes several load demand scenarios, 200 million initiating outage events and non-functioning protection equipment. The resulting component ranking provides an important input to the TSO's decision-making, and could be implemented as a complement to the existing deterministic N-1 criterion. With the methods applied a TSO can perform further and more detailed assessments on a few critical components in order to enhance system reliability for equipment failures and strengthen the system vulnerability against sabotage.
QC 20110920

The power demand increases every year around the world with the growth of population and the expansion of cities. Meanwhile, the structure of a power system becomes increasing complex. Moreover, increasing renewable energy sources (RES) has linked to the power network at different voltage levels. These new features are expected to have a negative impact on the security of the power system. In recent years, complex network (CN) theory has been studied intensively in solving practical problems of large-scale complex systems. A new direction for power system security assessment has been provided with the developments in the CN field. In this thesis, we carry out investigations on models and approaches that aim to make the security assessment from an overview system level with CN theory. Initially, we study the impact of the renewable energy (RE) penetration level on the vulnerability in the future grid (FG). Data shows that the capacity of RE has been increasing over by 10% annually all over the world. To demonstrate the impact of unpredictable fluctuating characteristics of RES on the power system stability, a CN model given renewable energy integration for the vulnerability analysis is introduced. The numerical simulations are investigated based on the simplified 14-generator model of the South Eastern Australia power system. Based on the simulation results, the impact of different penetrations of RES and demand side management on the Australian FG is discussed. Secondly, the distributed optimization performance of the communication network topology in the photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage (ES) combined system is studied with CN theory. A Distributed Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (D-ADMM) is proposed to accelerate the convergence speed in a large dimensional communication system. It is shown that the dynamic performance of this approach is highly-sensitive to the communication network topology. We study the variation of convergence speed under different communication network topology. Based on this research, guidance on how to design a relatively more optimal communication network is given as well. Then, we focus on a new model of vulnerability analysis. The existing CN models usually neglect the detailed electrical characteristics of a power grid. In order to address the issue, an innovative model which considers power flow (PF), one of the most important characteristics in a power system, is proposed for the analysis of power grid vulnerability. Moreover, based on the CN theory and the Max-Flow theorem, a new vulnerability index is presented to identify the vulnerable lines in a power system. The comparative simulations between the power flow model and existing models are investigated on the IEEE 118-bus system. Based on the PF model, we improve a power system cascading risk assessment model. In this research the risk is defined by the consequence and probabilities of the failures in the system, which is affected by both power factors and the network structure. Furthermore, a cascading event simulation module is designed to identify the cascading chain in the system during a failure. This innovation can form a better module for the cascading risk assessment of a power system. Finally, we argue that the current cyber-physical network model have their limitations and drawbacks. The existing “point-wise” failure model is not appropriate to present the interdependency of power grid and communication network. The interactions between those two interdependent networks are much more complicated than they were described in some the prior literatures. Therefore, we propose a new interdependency model which is based on earlier research in this thesis. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the new model in explaining the cascading mechanism in this kind of networks.

Laser assisted weapons, such as laser guided bombs, laser guided missiles and laser beam-riding missiles pose a significant threat to military assets in the modern battlefield. Laser beam-riding missiles are particularly hard to detect because they use low power lasers. Most laser warning systems produced so far can not detect laser beam-riding missiles because of their weak emissions which have signals less than 1% of laser range finder power . They are even harder to defeat because current counter-measures are not designed to work against this threat. The aim of this project is to examine the vulnerability of laser warning systems against guided weapons, to build an evaluation tool for laser warning sensors (LWS) and seekers, and try to find suitable counter-measures for laser beam-riding missiles that use low power lasers in their guidance systems. The project comes about because of the unexpected results obtained from extensive field trials carried out on various LWRs in the United Arab Emirates desert, where severe weather conditions may be experienced. The objective was to help find a solution for these systems to do their job in protecting the tanks and armoured vehicles crews from such a threat. In order to approach the subject, a computer model has been developed to enable the assessment of all phases of a laser warning receiver and missile seeker. MATLAB & SIMULINK software have been used to build the model. During this process experimentation and field trials have been carried out to verify the reliability of the model. This project will enable both the evaluation and design of any generic laser warning receiver or missile seeker and specific systems if various parameters are known. Moreover, this model will be used as a guide to the development of reliable countermeasures for laser beam-riding missiles.

Wide-area disturbances are power outages occurring over large geographical regions that dramatically affect the power system reliability, causing interruptions of the electric supply to residential, commercial, and industrial users. Historically, wide-area disturbances have greatly affected societies. Virginia Tech directed a research project related to the causes of the major disturbances in electric power systems. Research results showed that the role of the power systemâ s protection schemes in the wide-area disturbances is critical. Incorrect operations of power systemâ s protection schemes have contributed to a spread of the disturbances. This research defined hidden failures of protection schemes and showed that these kinds of failures have contributed in the degradation of 70-80 percent of the wide-area disturbances. During a wide-area disturbance analysis, it was found that hidden failures in protection schemes caused the disconnection of power system elements in an incorrect and undesirable manner contributing to the disturbance degradation. This dissertation presents a methodology to assess and rank the effects of unwanted disconnections caused by hidden failures based on Regions of Vulnerability and index of severity in the protection schemes. The developed methodology for the evaluation of the Region of Vulnerability found that the indicator that most accurately reflects the relationship of the Region of Vulnerability with the single line diagram is kilometers. For the representation of the Region of Vulnerability in the power system, we found segments in the transmission line in which the occurrence of faults do make the relay to operate, producing the unwanted disconnection caused by hidden failure. The results in the test system show that the infeed currents restrain the Region of Vulnerability from spreading along power system elements. Finally the methodology to compute the index of severity is developed. The index of severity has the objective of ranking the protection schemes, considers the dynamics of the protection schemes, and evaluates the overall disturbance consequence under the static and dynamic perspectives.
Ph. D.

This desertation shows that a unique class of network disruption exists that can be regarded in isolation of other classes of network disturbances, namely cascade disruption of generation (COG). This class of disturbance is being defined in terms of the cascading effect that it exhibits in terms of the disruption of power generating units in an interconnected power system. Through a literature survey it is shown that a lack of formal acknowledgement exists in the recognition of this class of disturbance both locally and abroad, and that therefore there is a general absence of a policy framework to manage the threat that is associated with the cascade disruption of generation. The analysis of the records of such events in the Southern African power pool are analised, and the properties and characteristics of COG events are explored. The extent of the threat to the interconnected power system that is posed by COG, as a phenomenon, is quantified in the conte·xt of industry practice and weaknesses are identified. It is shown that the occurrence of this class of event is not entirely random, and that statistical methods can be used in the development of mitigation strategies. A management framework is developed with metrics for the monitoring, evaluation and trending of the phenomenon, and to evaluate the ongoing risk. Roles and responsibilities are sugested and a outline for the systematic investigation of such events is developed. In the conclusion, the possible benefits of the an COG managenent framework are discussed and scope for future work in this regard is suggested.
Thesis (MIng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007.
Bruce R. Ellingwood, Committee Chair ; Abdul-Hamid Zureick, Committee Member ; James I. Craig, Committee Member ; Reginald DesRoches, Committee Member ; Kenneth M. Will, Committee Member.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003.
Thesis advisor(s): Javier Salmeron, Kevin Wood. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-102). Also available online.

Our society is heavily dependent on commodities, as water and electricity, supplied to final users by engineered systems, which are known as critical infrastructures. In such context, the understanding of how such systems handle damaging events is an important aspect and is a current concern of researchers, public agents, and society. How much of performance a system loses due to damages is related to its vulnerability, and the ability to absorb and recover successfully from damages is its resilience. In this study, approaches to assess the vulnerability and resilience of power distribution systems by evaluating dynamic features, as the processes of failure and repair, and system reconfiguration for vulnerability, and the effects of extreme weather scenarios for resilience together with the processes of failure of repair are presented. Such approaches were applied on systems previously presented in the literature, and also on a Brazilian power distribution system. A Monte Carlo simulation was applied to evaluate this systems, models for time-to-failure and time-to-repair under different circumstances were obtained from historical data, and a method to use the models of time-to-failure during the vulnerability analysis was introduced. In addition, an assessment of the impact of reconfiguration capability on vulnerability is also carried out, and a resilience assessment under different climate scenarios has been developed. The time-to-failure and repair models highlighted how external factors modifies the Brazilian system failure and repair dynamics, the use of time-to-failure models during vulnerability analysis showed that the consideration of the failure dynamic of the types of elements give different results, and the time domain allows new analysis\' perspectives. The investigation indicated that the vulnerability reduction due to reconfiguration is affected by the number of switches and also the maximum load capacity of the distribution system feeders. The resilience assessment showed that for structural connectivity, larger distribution networks are less resilient, while for electricity delivery, a set of features, related with the topological and electrical organization of such networks, seems to be associated with the network service resilience, such information is useful for system planning and management. The dynamics evaluated in this study are relevant to vulnerability and resilience of such systems, and also to other critical infrastructures. Moreover, the developed approaches can be applied to other systems, as transportation and water distribution. In future studies, other power distribution systems features, as distributed generation and energy storage, will be considered in both, vulnerability and resilience analysis.
Nossa sociedade é altamente dependente de commodities, como água e eletricidade, fornecidas para os usuários por sistemas de engenharia, conhecidos como infraestruturas críticas. A compreensão de como tais sistemas lidam com eventos prejudiciais é uma preocupação atual de pesquisadores, agentes públicos e sociedade. A perda de desempenho de um sistema devido a danos é relacionada à sua vulnerabilidade, e a capacidade de absorver e se recuperar dos danos é a resiliência. Neste estudo, são apresentadas abordagens para avaliar a vulnerabilidade e resiliência de sistemas de distribuição de energia considerando características dinâmicas, como os processos de falha e reconfiguração do sistema, para a vulnerabilidade, e os efeitos de climas extremos na resiliência com os processos de falha e reparo. Tais abordagens foram aplicadas em sistemas previamente apresentados na literatura, e também em um sistema brasileiro. Simulação de Monte Carlo foi utilizada para avaliar as dinâmicas de falha e reparo do sistema utilizando de modelos obtidos a partir de dados históricos, e um método para usar os modelos de tempo-até-falha durante a análise de vulnerabilidade também foi apresentado. Além disso, uma avaliação do impacto da dinâmica de reconfiguração na vulnerabilidade foi realizada e uma avaliação de resiliência sob diferentes cenários climáticos foi desenvolvida. Os modelos tempo-para-falha e reparo destacaram como fatores externos modificam as dinâmicas de falha e reparo do sistema brasileiro, o uso de modelos de confiabilidade na análise de vulnerabilidades mostrou que a consideração dos diferentes tipos de elementos geram resultados diferentes e o domínio de tempo permite novas perspectivas de análise. A investigação da reconfiguração indicou que a redução da vulnerabilidade devido à reconfiguração é afetada pelo número de chaves e também pela máxima capacidade de carga dos alimentadores do sistema de distribuição. A avaliação de resiliência mostrou que, para conectividade estrutural, redes de distribuição maiores são menos resilientes, enquanto que para fornecimento de energia, um conjunto de características, relacionados com a organização topológica e elétrica dessas redes parece ser associado à resiliência do serviço, informação útil para o planejamento. As dinâmicas avaliadas neste estudo são relevantes para a vulnerabilidade e resiliência de tais sistemas, e também para outras infraestruturas críticas. Além disso, essas abordagens podem ser aplicadas a outros sistemas, como transporte e distribuição de água. Em estudos futuros, outras características de sistemas de distribuição de energia, como geração distribuída e armazenamento de energia, serão consideradas nas análises de vulnerabilidade e resiliência.

La vulnérabilité des systèmes électriques est l'un des problèmes liés à leur complexité. Il a fait l’objet d’une attention croissante des chercheurs au cours des dernières décennies. Malgré cela, les phénomènes fondamentaux qui régissent la vulnérabilité du système ne sont pas encore bien compris.Comprendre comment la vulnérabilité des réseaux électriques émerge de leur topologie est la motivation principale du présent travail. Pour cela, le présent travail de recherché propose une nouvelle méthode pour évaluer la vulnérabilité des systèmes électriques et identifier leurs éléments les plus critiques. La méthode permet d’avoir une bonne compréhension des liens entre la topologie d’un réseau et sa vulnérabilité à des pertes d’ouvrages (lignes ou transformateurs).La première partie de ce travail consiste en une analyse critique des approches rencontrées dans la littérature, s’appuyant sur la théorie des graphes, pour analyser la vulnérabilité des réseaux électriques. Les résultats fournis par ces approches pour quatre réseaux IEEE sont comparés à ceux fournis par une analyse de contingence de référence, basée sur une résolution d’un load-flow AC. Des avantages et inconvénients de chaque approche est tirée une méthode améliorée pour l'évaluation de la vulnérabilité des réseaux électriques aux pertes d’ouvrage. Cette méthode est basée sur une approximation courant continue du load flow.La deuxième partie propose une nouvelle approche basée sur la théorie spectrale des graphes et son utilisation pour la résolution d’un load flow DC. Elle permet de mieux comprendre comment la vulnérabilité des réseaux électriques et leurs composants critiques émergent de la topologie du graphe sous-jacent au réseau
The vulnerability of electrical systems is one of the problems related to their complexity. It has received increasing attention from researchers in recent decades. Despite this, the fundamental phenomena that govern the vulnerability of the system are still not well understood.Understanding how the vulnerability of power systems emerges from their complex organization is, therefore, the main motivation of the present work. It proposes the definition of a standard method to assess the vulnerability of power systems and identify their most critical elements. The method enables a better understanding of the links between the topology of the grid and the line outage vulnerabilities.The first part of this research work offers a critical review of literature approaches used to assess system vulnerability. The results provided by these approaches for four IEEE test systems are confronted to a reference contingency analysis using AC power flow calculations. From these analyses, pros and cons of each approach are outlined. An improved method for assessment of system vulnerability to line outages is defined from this confrontation. It is based on DC load flow and graph theory.The second part proposes a new approach based on spectral graph theory and solving of DC power flow to identify how system vulnerability and critical components emerge from the power network topology

This dissertation is a collection of previously-published manuscript and conference papers. In this dissertation, we will deal with a stochastic unit commitment problem with cooling systems for gas generators, a robust unit commitment problem with demand response and uncertain wind generation, and a power grid vulnerability analysis with transmission line switching. The latter two problems correspond to our theoretical contributions in two-stage robust optimization, i.e., how to efficiently solve a two-stage robust optimization, and how to deal with mixed-integer recourse in robust optimization. Due to copyright issue, this dissertation does not include any methodology papers written by the author during his PhD study. Readers are referred to the author's website for a complete list of publications.

Le travail de thèse s'intéresse aux effets liés aux agressions MFP et du chaos sur l'électronique. Après une étude théorique et expérimentale du couplage électromagnétique entre deux ports d'accès d'impédance 50 Ω réalisés dans une cavité complexe, un nouveau modèle est proposé pour étendre l'étude aux cas des impédances de rayonnements quelconques en s'appuyant sur le principe de Babinet. L'impact des agressions EM intentionnelles sur les circuits "front-end" des récepteurs comme par exemple les circuits limiteurs lorsque les antennes sont agressées en dehors de leur bande passante a été aussi étudié et validé sur plusieurs types d'antennes pour les applications 2,45 GHz et bande-X. Les résultats montrent que pour certaines conditions, il est possible que l'agression EM génère des signaux chaotiques à l'entrée du récepteur. Enfin, deux sources chaotiques ont été étudiées et caractérisées et la possibilité d'enrichir leur spectre est proposée
The thesis focuses on the effects associated with HPM and Chaos aggressions on electronics. After a theoretical and experimental study of the electromagnetic coupling between two ports of 50 Ω impedance in a complex cavity, a new model based on Babinet principle is proposed to extend the study to the case of any radiation impedances. The impact of intentional EM attacks on the "front end" receiver circuits such as limiters at outside the antennas bandwidth was also studied and validated on several types of antennas for 2.45 GHz an X-band applications. The results show that for certain conditions, it is possible that EM aggression generates chaotic signals in the front end receivers. Finally, two chaotic sources have been studied and characterized. The opportunity to enhance their spectrum is also proposed

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Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
This study presents a description of the development model of a representation of simplified grid applied in hybrid load flow for calculation of the voltage variations in a steady-state caused by the wind farm on power system. Also, it proposes an optimal load-flow able to control power factor on connection bar and to minimize the loss. The analysis process on system, led by the wind producer, it has as base given technician supplied by the grid. So, the propose model to the simplification of the grid that allows the necessity of some knowledge only about the data referring the internal network, that is, the part of the network that interests in the analysis. In this way, it is intended to supply forms for the auxiliary in the systematization of the relations between the sector agents. The model for simplified network proposed identifies the internal network, external network and the buses of boulders from a study of vulnerability of the network, attributing them floating liquid powers attributing slack models. It was opted to apply the presented model in Newton-Raphson and a hybrid load flow, composed by The Gauss-Seidel method Zbarra and Summation Power. Finally, presents the results obtained to a developed computational environment of SCILAB and FORTRAN, with their respective analysis and conclusion, comparing them with the ANAREDE
Este trabalho apresenta uma descri??o do desenvolvimento de modelo para representa??o de rede simplificada aplicado em fluxo de carga h?brido para c?lculo das varia??es de tens?o em regime permanente provocadas pela conex?o de aerogeradores na rede el?trica. Al?m disso, se apresenta um fluxo de carga ?timo capaz de controlar remotamente o fator de pot?ncia na barra de conex?o e minimizar perdas. O princ?pio do processo de an?lise do sistema, conduzido pelo acessante, tem como base dados t?cnicos fornecidos pela rede acessada. Assim, se prop?e um modelo para simplifica??o de redes que permita a necessidade do conhecimento apenas dos dados referente a rede interna, ou seja, a parcela da rede de interesse para an?lise. Dessa forma, pretende-se fornecer meios para auxiliar na sistematiza??o das rela??es entre concession?ria e acessante. O modelo para simplifica??o de rede proposto identifica a rede interna, rede externa e as barras de fronteira a partir de dados provenientes de um estudo de vulnerabilidade da rede, atribuindo-as pot?ncias l?quidas flutuantes, ou seja, modelando-as como barras slack. Aplica-se o referido modelo no fluxo de carga Newton-Raphson e em um fluxo de carga h?brido, composto pelos m?todos de Gauss Seidel Zbarra e Soma de Pot?ncias. Ao final, apresentam-se os resultados obtidos por um ambiente computacional desenvolvido do SCILAB e FORTRAN, com suas respectivas an?lises e conclus?es, comparando-os com o ANAREDE

碩士
國立中山大學
電機工程學系研究所
100
In this thesis, security measures and vulnerability mitigation are mainly addressed. How to improve the system vulnerability is one of the main issues for power system operation and planning. Recent research revealed that Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) have a great potential to be used to improve system vulnerability. A vulnerability assessment is proposed in this thesis to identify the impact factors in the power systems due to generation outage and line outage. A Bus Impact Severity (BIS) analysis is then proposed and used to find the vulnerable buses in the system. The buses with the larger BIS value defined in this thesis are the better locations for ESSs placement. Formulations for optimal locations and capacities of ESSs placement are derived and then solved by Genetic Algorithm (GA). Test results show that the proposed method can be used to find the optimal locations and capacities for ESSs for system vulnerability improvement.

The research aims to build a behavioral models of electrical power systems through the use of Petri nets, covering both traditional reliability analysis (quantitative measurement) and behavior analysis (qualitative measurement) for the detection of topology defects. The development models has allowed to study the operating sequence of the electrical system, where the evolution of the system to be monitored is compared with its ideal evolution. The modelling criterion is then validated by the implementation in two case studies. In the first case, the whole approach is applied to the identification of a complex electrical plant supplying a critical structure such as a hospital. Petri nets are capable of modeling and simulating all the functional dependencies between the system elements and also the correct fault repair behavior for the tested power system. This allows the system to be analyzed for properties such as tolerance of failures and isolation of the safety hazards to determine which functions are most critical and moreover need to be enhanced in order to mitigate the accidental risks. In the second case study, a new approach for LOTO procedures using Petri nets is introduced. The suggested methodology supports mechanical development of the operational procedures that can assists the operator especially for not automatic operations. It proposes some simple rules, a graphical representation of electrical status and an algebraic model to allow an autocheck of the interlocking procedure.

abstract: The electric power system is one of the largest, most complicated, and most important cyber-physical systems in the world. The link between the cyber and physical level is the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and Energy Management Systems (EMS). Their functions include monitoring the real-time system operation through state estimation (SE), controlling the system to operate reliably, and optimizing the system operation efficiency. The SCADA acquires the noisy measurements, such as voltage angle and magnitude, line power flows, and line current magnitude, from the remote terminal units (RTUs). These raw data are firstly sent to the SE, which filters all the noisy data and derives the best estimate of the system state. Then the estimated states are used for other EMS functions, such as contingency analysis, optimal power flow, etc. In the existing state estimation process, there is no defense mechanism for any malicious attacks. Once the communication channel between the SCADA and RTUs is hijacked by the attacker, the attacker can perform a man-in-middle attack and send data of its choice. The only step that can possibly detect the attack during the state estimation process is the bad data detector. Unfortunately, even the bad data detector is unable to detect a certain type of attack, known as the false data injection (FDI) attacks. Diagnosing the physical consequences of such attacks, therefore, is very important to understand system stability. In this thesis, theoretical general attack models for AC and DC attacks are given and an optimization problem for the worst-case overload attack is formulated. Furthermore, physical consequences of FDI attacks, based on both DC and AC model, are addressed. Various scenarios with different attack targets and system configurations are simulated. The details of the research, results obtained and conclusions drawn are presented in this document.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2015

abstract: The large distributed electric power system is a hierarchical network involving the transportation of power from the sources of power generation via an intermediate densely connected transmission network to a large distribution network of end-users at the lowest level of the hierarchy. At each level of the hierarchy (generation/ trans- mission/ distribution), the system is managed and monitored with a combination of (a) supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA); and (b) energy management systems (EMSs) that process the collected data and make control and actuation de- cisions using the collected data. However, at all levels of the hierarchy, both SCADA and EMSs are vulnerable to cyber attacks. Furthermore, given the criticality of the electric power infrastructure, cyber attacks can have severe economic and social con- sequences. This thesis focuses on cyber attacks on SCADA and EMS at the transmission level of the electric power system. The goal is to study the consequences of three classes of cyber attacks that can change topology data. These classes include: (i) unobservable state-preserving cyber attacks that only change the topology data; (ii) unobservable state-and-topology cyber-physical attacks that change both states and topology data to enable a coordinated physical and cyber attack; and (iii) topology- targeted man-in-the-middle (MitM) communication attacks that alter topology data shared during inter-EMS communication. Specically, attack class (i) and (ii) focus on the unobservable attacks on single regional EMS while class (iii) focuses on the MitM attacks on communication links between regional EMSs. For each class of attacks, the theoretical attack model and the implementation of attacks are provided, and the worst-case attack and its consequences are exhaustively studied. In particularly, for class (ii), a two-stage optimization problem is introduced to study worst-case attacks that can cause a physical line over ow that is unobservable in the cyber layer. The long-term implication and the system anomalies are demonstrated via simulation. For attack classes (i) and (ii), both mathematical and experimental analyses sug- gest that these unobservable attacks can be limited or even detected with resiliency mechanisms including load monitoring, anomalous re-dispatches checking, and his- torical data comparison. For attack class (iii), countermeasures including anomalous tie-line interchange verication, anomalous re-dispatch alarms, and external contin- gency lists sharing are needed to thwart such attacks.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2015

This dissertation studies the causes and mechanism of power system cascading outages and proposes the improved interactive scheme between system-wide and local levels of monitoring and control to quickly detect, classify and mitigate the cascading outages in power system. A novel method for evaluating the vulnerability of individual components as well as the whole power system, which is named as weighted vulnerability analysis, is developed. Betweenness centrality is used to measure the importance of each bus and transmission line in the modeled power system network, which is in turn used to determine the weights for the weighted vulnerability index. It features fast reaction time and achieves higher accuracy when dealing with the cascading outage detection, classification and mitigation over the traditional methods. The overload problem due to power flow redistribution after one line tripped is a critical factor contributing to the cascading outages. A parallel corridor searching method is proposed to quickly identify the most vulnerable components after tripping a transmission line. The power system topology model can be simplified into state graph after searching the domains for each generator, the commons for each bus, and links between the commons. The parallel corridor will be determined by searching the links and commons in system topology graph for the given state of power system operation. During stressed operating state, either stable or unstable power swing may have impacts on distance relay judgment and lead to relay misoperation, which will result in the power system lines being tripped and as a consequence power system operating state becoming even more stressful. At the local level, an enhanced fault detection tool during power system swing is developed to reduce the chance of relay misoperation. Comprehensive simulation studies have been implemented by using the IEEE 39-bus and 118-bus test systems. The results are promising because: The results from weighted vulnerability analysis could provide better system situational awareness and accurate information about the disturbance; The results form parallel corridor search method could identify the most vulnerable lines after power re-distribution, which will give operator time to take remedial actions; The results from new travelling wave and wavelet transform based fault detection could reduce the impact of relay misoperation.

Virtual prototyping is today an essential technology for modeling, verification, and re-design of full HW/SW platforms. This allows a fast prototyping of platforms with a higher and higher complexity, which precludes traditional verification approaches based on the static analysis of the source code. Consequently, several technologies based on the analysis of simulation traces have proposed to efficiently validate the entire system from both the functional and extra-functional point of view. From the functional point of view, different approaches based on invariant and assertion mining have been proposed in literature to validate the functionality of a system under verification (SUV). Dynamic mining of invariants is a class of approaches to extract logic formulas with the purpose of expressing stable conditions in the behavior of the SUV. The mined formulas represent likely invariants for the SUV, which certainly hold on the considered traces. A large set of representative execution traces must be analyzed to increase the probability that mined invariants are generally true. However, this is extremely time-consuming for current sequential approaches when long execution traces and large set of SUV's variables are considered. Dynamic mining of assertions is instead a class of approaches to extract temporal logic formulas with the purpose of expressing temporal relations among the variables of a SUV. However, in most cases, existing tools can only mine assertions compliant with a limited set of pre-defined templates. Furthermore, they tend to generate a huge amount of assertions, while they still lack an effective way to measure their coverage in terms of design behaviors. Moreover, the security vulnerability of a firmware running on a HW/SW platforms is becoming ever more critical in the functional verification of a SUV. Current approaches in literature focus only on raising an error as soon as an assertion monitoring the SUV fails. No approach was proposed to investigate the issue that this set of assertions could be incomplete and that different, unusual behaviors could remain not investigated. From the extra-functional point of view of a SUV, several approaches based on power state machines (PSMs) have been proposed for modeling and simulating the power consumption of an IP at system-level. However, while they focus on the use of PSMs as the underlying formalism for implementing dynamic power management techniques of a SoC, they generally do not deal with the basic problem of how to generate a PSM. In this context, the thesis aims at exploiting dynamic assertion mining to improve the current approaches for the characterization of functional and extra-functional properties of a SoC with the final goal of providing an efficient and effective system-level virtual prototyping environment. In detail, the presented methodologies focus on: efficient extraction of invariants from execution traces by exploiting GP-GPU architectures; extraction of human-readable temporal assertions by combining user-defined assertion templates, data mining and coverage analysis; generation of assertions pinpointing the unlike execution paths of a firmware to guide the analysis of the security vulnerabilities of a SoC; and last but not least, automatic generation of PSMs for the extra-functional characterization of the SoC.