Boosting immunity to blackouts

There have been several key developments that make it conceivable that it would soon be possible to reduce the frequency and intensity of interconnected power system failures. System protection is one of the technologies undergoing radical changes that holds a strong promise that cascading system outages can be mitigated or even eliminated. The increasing use of digital relays that will allow the implementation of exciting new concepts has made this a strong possibility. In this article, we report on future concepts in power system protection, communication, wide area measurement systems (WAMS), system control, and electricity market considerations, Adding a summary of our own research in associated studies and our assessment of future investigations, our aim is to provide a blueprint for a secure power system infrastructure.