Simulation Models and Implementation of a Simulator for the Performability Analysis of Electric Power Systems Considering Interdependencies

Electric power systems are critical infrastructures that provide vital services for the human activities; assessing their dependability is thus an high priority task. This paper presents an ad-hoc simulator for the evaluation of dependability and performability measures in electrical power system (EPS). Our stochastic model is composed by separated and simple submodels of the dynamics of the two subsystems composing EPS: the electrical infrastructure and the computer-based control system. By providing explicit modeling of the interdependencies between the main subsystems, the impact on the dependability and performability of the cascading or escalating failures can be analyzed. Some preliminary analysis on a case study are also shown.