Power system reconfiguration based on multilevel graph partitioning

Area partitioning that splits a power network into self-sufficient islands is an emergency control to stop the propagation of disturbances and avoid cascading failures. This paper provides a survey of the state-of-the-art of power system islanding techniques and proposes the application of a multilevel graph area partitioning algorithm that are applicable to very large power grids. As an emergency control, network partitioning enhances the capability of a power system to withstand extreme and vulnerable operating conditions. The proposed algorithm has been simulated on two test systems, one with 200 buses and the other with 22,000 buses. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm is highly efficient.