Controllability of prosumer-based networks in the presence of communication failures

Typically, interconnected dynamical systems rely on communication in order to coordinate and compute appropriate control actions. Loss of communication links can exclude key decision makers from providing input and can even alter the system properties. This paper investigates the impact of communication loss on the controllability of a specific networked system, a homogeneous power-grid populated by producer-consumer hybrids. The notion of muteness is introduced in order to characterize the control policy adopted by the nodes which are isolated due to communication loss. We provide results which relates the controllability of such a system with mute nodes to the topology of the underlying electrical network and show that under certain topological conditions, controllability is preserved.