Reducing power grid cascading failure propagation by minimizing algebraic connectivity in edge addition

Analyzing network robustness under various circumstances is generally regarded as a challenging problem. Robustness against failure is one of the essential properties of large-scale dynamic network systems such as power grids, transportation systems, communication systems, and computer networks. Due to the network diversity and complexity, many topological features have been proposed to capture specific system properties. For power grids, a popular process for improving a network’s structural robustness is via the topology design. However, most of existing methods focus on localized network metrics, such as node connectivity and edge connectivity, which do not encompass a global perspective of cascading propagation in a power grid. In this paper, we use an informative global metric algebraic connectivity because it is sensitive to the connectedness in a broader spectrum of graphs. Our process involves decreasing the average propagation in a power grid by minimizing the increase in its algebraic connectivity. We propose a topology-based greedy strategy to optimize the robustness of the power grid. To evaluate the network robustness, we calculate the average propagation using MATCASC to simulate cascading line outages in power grids. Experimental results illustrate that our proposed method outperforms existing techniques.