Contingency Identification of Cascading Failures in Power Transmission Networks

Abstract: Due to the evolving nature of power systems and the complicated coupling relationship of power devices, it has been a great challenge to identify the contingencies that could trigger cascading blackouts of power systems. This paper provides an effective approach to identifying the initial contingency in power transmission networks, which are equipped with flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) devices, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links and protective relays. Essentially, the problem of contingency identification is formulated in the framework of nonlinear programming, which can be solved by the Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov (JFNK) method to circumvent the Jacobian matrix and reduce the computational cost. Notably, the proposed identification approach is also applied to complicated cascading failure models of power systems. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to validate the proposed identification approach on IEEE 118 Bus Systems. The proposed approach succeeds in reconciling the rigorous optimization formulation with the practical modelling of cascading blackouts.