An AC Cascading Failure Model for Resilience Analysis in Power Networks

Cascading failures are one of the main mechanisms
causing widespread blackouts of power networks. Models simulating
the behavior of cascading failures are widely used in
the literature to understand fault propagation and investigate
effective mitigation strategies. However, there is a lack of validated
models that address the specific requirements of resilience
analysis in power networks and that are computationally fast and
converge reliably for very large contingency sizes that may occur
under extreme events. This paper presents a novel comprehensive
AC Cascading Failure Model (AC-CFM) particularly designed for
resilience analysis in power networks. The model is capable to
deal with large contingency sizes, it is computationally efficient
in large networks and integrates seamlessly with established
resilience metrics. It incorporates dynamic phenomena and
protection mechanisms using static representations. The model
is verified following the recommendations by the IEEE PES
working group on cascading failures using internal validation,
sensitivity analysis and comparison to historical outage data.
Furthermore, an analysis of the impact of different contingency
sizes and the dependency of cascades on network loading level,
are given to illustrate some applications of the model and to
highlight its capabilities.