Resiliency analysis of large-scale renewable enriched power grid: A network percolation-based approach

Recent trend of integrating renewable energy into the power grid poses new challenges like power quality, voltage stability, etc. Due to the intermittent behavior of the renewable energy sources power flow pattern changes continuously throughout the grid which adds more complexity to the grid monitoring and control task. Although the percentage of renewable energy consumption is low in Australia, the electricity generation sector shares a large proportion of the total renewable usage and the usage rate is increasing every year. The constant increase of generation in the existing transmission network creates a huge burden on the system and frequent large-scale contingencies are expected. The trouble encountered in analyzing systems like power grid is that individual behavior of its components is reasonably well understood. It is designed to behave collectively in an orderly fashion but sometimes it shows chaotic, confusing attitude, and sometimes behave destructively like when blackout occurs. Complex network theory provides an alternative but promising platform to analyze networked system like power grid where traditional approach fails to provide solution. In this chapter, a complex network framework-based network resiliency (percolation) analysis has been presented. A topological model of transmission level Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) with projected renewable integration has been simulated. The effects of random and targeted removal of transmission lines or substations on the network structure and functionality have been analyzed. A fast and simple algorithm to analyze percolation on large-scale power grid has also been addressed. © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014.