Power Grid Vulnerability Analysis with Rising Renewables Infiltration

The increasing penetration of renewable energy has a significant impact on the performance and reliability of the power grid. This is largely because of the uncertainty of the renewable resources and the complex nature of the power system infrastructure. This paper analyzed power grids’ vulnerability to cascading failures with respect to the penetration level of renewable energy into the grid. In this paper, a novel power balance technique is used for cascading failure analysis and power grid vulnerability measurement. The proposed approach incorporates a modified optimal power flow algorithm in the grid vulnerability analysis study which accurately reflects the most probable path of cascading failure evolution process with uncertain renewable generation. The simulation results on IEEE 118 bus system, IEEE 300 bus system and 500 bus system showed that increasing penetration of renewable energy have proportionally higher impact on grid vulnerability to cascading failures due to injection of higher uncertainties into the grid. It was also evident that after a certain level of RE penetration, some system might deteriorate rapidly and preventive measures should be taken if and when RE penetration level exceeds that limit.