US Power Grid Vulnerable to Terrorist Attack #1

Martin Rohden1, Andreas Sorge1, Marc Timme1,2, and Dirk Witthaut1
1Network Dynamics Group, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), D–37077 Göttingen, Germany
2Faculty of Physics, Georg August University Göttingen, Germany
 Received 25 June 2012; published 9 August 2012
See accompanying Physics Synopsis
Robust synchronization (phase locking) of power plants and consumers centrally underlies the stable operation of electric power grids. Despite current attempts to control large-scale networks, even their uncontrolled collective dynamics is not fully understood. Here we analyze conditions enabling self-organized synchronization in oscillator networks that serve as coarse-scale models for power grids, focusing on decentralizing power sources. Intriguingly, we find that whereas more decentralized grids become more sensitive to dynamical perturbations, they simultaneously become more robust to topological failures. Decentralizing power sources may thus facilitate the onset of synchronization in modern power grids.
© 2012 American Physical Society
URL:    http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.064101