Cascading Link Failure Analysis in Interdependent Networks for Maximal Outages in Smart Grid

Identifying a small group of power and communication lines whose removal initiates a cascading failure and results in a blackout is critical for the operation of the smart. grid. Once identified by an attacker, such a group becomes a threat to the availability and throughput of the entire system. In this paper, we introduce a vulnerability analysis based on the dynamics of the power grid, and the associated communication network, by reproducing the power flow conditions and the interdependency between the two components to evaluate the impact of attacks on the system in the form of lines and links removal. We formulate this system in a mathematical model and present an algorithm for the analysis of the model output. Numerical experiments of the proposed model and algorithm on the IEEE 14-Bus system and an associated communication network are presented as well.