Vulnerability Assessment of Power Grids Against Link-Based Attacks

In modern power grids, a local failure or attack can trigger catastrophic cascading failures, which makes it challenging to assess the attack vulnerability of power grids. In this brief, we define the optimal K-link attack problem and study the attack vulnerability of power grids in cascading failures. We propose a link centrality measure based on both topological and electrical properties for power grids. According to this centrality measure, we propose a greedy attack algorithm and an optimal attack algorithm. Simulation results based on standard IEEE bus test data show that the optimal attack is better than the greedy attack and the traditional PSO-based attack in fracturing power grids. Moreover, the greedy attack has an adequate attack efficiency with a smaller computational cost. This brief aids in understanding the vulnerability of power grids and provides clues for securing power grids.