Robustness assessment of the expansion of coupled electric power and natural gas networks under cascading failures

• Published in: IET generation, transmission & distribution Vol. 12; no. 21; pp. 5753 - 5760
• Main Authors: Beyza, Jesus, Yusta, Jose M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 27.11.2018
• Subjects: cascading failures; coupled electric power; coupled natural gas; coupled networks; critical infrastructure; critical infrastructures; electricity transmission networks; graph theory; interdependent electricity; investment; natural gas infrastructure; natural gas networks; natural gas technology; network operators; novel graph theory‐based methodology; random failures; Research Article; robustness assessment; structural robustness; transmission networks; graph theory; critical infrastructure; network operators; investment; robustness assessment; coupled electric power; transmission networks; random failures; coupled networks; structural robustness; natural gas networks; novel graph theory-based methodology; coupled natural gas; critical infrastructures; electricity transmission networks; natural gas infrastructure; interdependent electricity; natural gas technology; cascading failures
• ISSN: 1751-8687; 1751-8695; 1751-8695
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2018.5799

Electricity and natural gas networks are critical infrastructure for society, but the robustness of coupled networks has not been evaluated, even though both systems have strong interactions. This article proposes a novel graph theory-based methodology to assess the structural robustness of the coupled natural gas and electricity transmission networks in Spain while considering their interdependencies. Cascading failures were simulated in 22 case studies with different topologies, and the performance against random failures was evaluated. The results show that the investment programme proposed by both network operators ultimately improves the robustness of the interdependent electricity and natural gas infrastructure in Spain compared to the current system.