Understanding Braess' Paradox in power grids.

The ongoing energy transition requires power grid extensions to connect renewable generators to consumers and to transfer power among distant areas. The process of grid extension requires a large investment of resources and is supposed to make grid operation more robust. Yet, counter-intuitively, increasing the capacity of existing lines or adding new lines may also reduce the overall system performance and even promote blackouts due to Braess' paradox. Braess' paradox was theoretically modeled but not yet proven in realistically scaled power grids. Here, we present an experimental setup demonstrating Braess' paradox in an AC power grid and show how it constrains ongoing large-scale grid extension projects. We present a topological theory that reveals the key mechanism and predicts Braessian grid extensions from the network structure. These results offer a theoretical method to understand and practical guidelines in support of preventing unsuitable infrastructures and the systemic planning of grid extensions.

Multistability in lossy power grids and oscillator networks.

Networks of phase oscillators are studied in various contexts, in particular, in the modeling of the electric power grid. A functional grid corresponds to a stable steady state such that any bifurcation can have catastrophic consequences up to a blackout. Also, the existence of multiple steady states is undesirable as it can lead to transitions or circulatory flows. Despite the high practical importance there is still no general theory of the existence and uniqueness of steady states in such systems. Analytic results are mostly limited to grids without Ohmic losses. In this article, we introduce a method to systematically construct the solutions of the real power load-flow equations in the presence of Ohmic losses and explicitly compute them for tree and ring networks. We investigate different mechanisms leading to multistability and discuss the impact of Ohmic losses on the existence of solutions.

Cycle flows and multistability in oscillatory networks.

We study multistability in phase locked states in networks of phase oscillators under both Kuramoto dynamics and swing equation dynamics-a popular model for studying coarse-scale dynamics of an electrical AC power grid. We first establish the existence of geometrically frustrated states in such systems-where although a steady state flow pattern exists, no fixed point exists in the dynamical variables of phases due to geometrical constraints. We then describe the stable fixed points of the system with phase differences along each edge not exceeding π/2 in terms of cycle flows-constant flows along each simple cycle-as opposed to phase angles or flows. The cycle flow formalism allows us to compute tight upper and lower bounds to the number of fixed points in ring networks. We show that long elementary cycles, strong edge weights, and spatially homogeneous distribution of natural frequencies (for the Kuramoto model) or power injections (for the oscillator model for power grids) cause such networks to have more fixed points. We generalize some of these bounds to arbitrary planar topologies and derive scaling relations in the limit of large capacity and large cycle lengths, which we show to be quite accurate by numerical computation. Finally, we present an algorithm to compute all phase locked states-both stable and unstable-for planar networks.

Network susceptibilities: Theory and applications.

We introduce the concept of network susceptibilities quantifying the response of the collective dynamics of a network to small parameter changes. We distinguish two types of susceptibilities: vertex susceptibilities and edge susceptibilities, measuring the responses due to changes in the properties of units and their interactions, respectively. We derive explicit forms of network susceptibilities for oscillator networks close to steady states and offer example applications for Kuramoto-type phase-oscillator models, power grid models, and generic flow models. Focusing on the role of the network topology implies that these ideas can be easily generalized to other types of networks, in particular those characterizing flow, transport, or spreading phenomena. The concept of network susceptibilities is broadly applicable and may straightforwardly be transferred to all settings where networks responses of the collective dynamics to topological changes are essential.