Risk assessment of power system catastrophic failures and hidden failure monitoring and control system

One of the objectives of this study is to develop a methodology, together with a set of software programs that evaluate, in a power system, the risks of catastrophic failures caused by hidden failures in the hardware or software components of the protection system.; The disturbance propagation mechanism is revealed by the analysis of the 1977 New York Blackout. The step-by-step process of estimating the relay hidden failure probability is presented. A Dynamic Event Tree for the risk-based analysis of system catastrophic failures is proposed. A reduced 179-bus WSCC sample system is studied and the simulation results obtained from California sub-system are analyzed. System weak links are identified in the case study. The issues relating to the load and generation uncertainties for the risk assessment of system vulnerabilities are addressed.; A prototype system---the Hidden Failure Monitoring and Control System (HFMCS)---is proposed to mitigate the risk of power system catastrophic failures. Three main functional modules---Hidden Failure Monitoring, Hidden Failure Control and Misoperation Tracking Database---and their designs are presented. Hidden Failure Monitoring provides the basis that allows further control actions to be initiated. Hidden Failure Control is realized by using Adaptive Dependability/Security Protection, which can effectively stop possible relay involvement from triggering or propagating disturbance under stressed system conditions.; As an integrated part of the HFMCS, a Misoperation Tracking Database is proposed to track the performance of automatic station equipment, hence providing automatic management of misoperation records for hidden failure analysis.