Identifying Critical Components of Electric Power Systems: A Network Analytic Approach

We propose a method for identifying and ranking critical components and sets of components in technical infrastructures. Criticality is defined as the vulnerability of the system to failure in a specific component, or set of components. The identification of critical components is increasingly difficult when considering multiple simultaneous failures, especially component failures with synergistic effects. The proposed method addresses this problem. Furthermore, it is applied to an electric power distribution system in a Swedish municipality, using a simplified system model to calculate the consequences of component failures. We conclude that the proposed method facilitates the identification of critical failure sets and components for large-scale technical infrastructures. Using the proposed method it is possible to gain insights about the sys tem that otherwise might be overlooked.