A framework of frequency oscillation in power grid: Epidemic propagation over social networks

The oscillation of frequency in power grid is studied using the tool of epidemic propagation over social networks, as well as a set of real measurements of frequencies at multiple locations in the US power grid. A logical network is used for analyzing the propagation, instead of the physical power network. The topology of the logical network is obtained from Bayesian network structure learning using real frequency measurements. By using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, it is demonstrated that the logical power network can be approximated by a small world structure model. Then, the model of susceptible-infectious-susceptible (SIS), which is widely used in the study of epidemic propagation, is applied to obtain the ordinary differential equation describing the evolution of the proportion of locations in power grid that have significant frequency deviations. The parameters of SIS model are then obtained from the logical network and measurements. The dynamics obtained from the SIS model are compared with the real measurements, which effectively demonstrates the validity of the epidemic modeling for the frequency oscillation in power grid.