Resilience Analysis of Australian Electricity and Gas Transmission Networks

Shriram Ashok Kumar, Maliha Tasnim, Zohvin Singh Basnyat, Faezeh Karimi and Kaveh Khalilpour
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Shriram Ashok Kumar: Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Maliha Tasnim: Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Zohvin Singh Basnyat: Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Faezeh Karimi: Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Kaveh Khalilpour: Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Given they are two critical infrastructure areas, the security of electricity and gas networks is highly important due to potential multifaceted social and economic impacts. Unexpected errors or sabotage can lead to blackouts, causing a significant loss for the public, businesses, and governments. Climate change and an increasing number of consequent natural disasters (e.g., bushfires and floods) are other emerging network resilience challenges. In this paper, we used network science to examine the topological resilience of national energy networks with two case studies of Australian gas and electricity networks. To measure the fragility and resilience of these energy networks, we assessed various topological features and theories of percolation. We found that both networks follow the degree distribution of power-law and the characteristics of a scale-free network. Then, using these models, we conducted node and edge removal experiments. The analysis identified the most critical nodes that can trigger cascading failure within the network upon a fault. The analysis results can be used by the network operators to improve network resilience through various mitigation strategies implemented on the identified critical nodes.

Keywords: network science; energy networks; cascading failure; percolation theory; scale-free network; Barabási-Albert model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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