A study of the impacts of flow direction and electrical constraints on vulnerability assessment of power grid using electrical betweenness measures

In this paper, we analyze the impacts of major electrical properties, including node constraints, line limits, and flow direction, on vulnerability assessment of power grid using several types of electrical betweenness measures. Specifically, we first propose a set of new electrical betweenness measures, which takes into account flow direction in power grids. Then, the impacts of major electrical properties on vulnerability assessment of power grid are analyzed by comparing the identification results of critical components based on the proposed electrical betweenness measures with those based on the other two types of electrical betweenness measures reported in the literature, which take into consideration node constraints and line limits, respectively. Analysis results show the important impact of flow direction on the identification of critical components. The results lead us to introduce a set of combined electrical betweenness measures that take into account node constraints, line limits, and flow direction together. Simulation results on the IEEE 300-bus system and the Italian power grid show that the combined electrical betweenness measures are superior in identifying critical components and more useful in assessing power grid vulnerability.