Topology and vulnerability of the Iranian power grid

In this paper we investigated the structural properties of the ultra high voltage power transmission network of Iran. We modeled the power grid as a network with 105 nodes and 142 connection links. We found that the Iranian power grid displays a relatively moderate clustering coefficient–much larger than that of corresponding random networks–and small characteristics path length comparable to that of corresponding random networks; i.e. the power grid is a small-world network with exponential degree distribution. Global efficiency was considered as an indicator of grid’s performance and the influence of random and intentional nodal failures on the efficiency was investigated. We also studied the influence of cascaded failures on the largest connected component of the network. The power grid was vulnerable against cascaded failures, which should be considered serious in redesigning the network topology.