Mitigation of cascade blackout in Power Systems by using Widest Path and Power Flow Redistribution Algorithms

Large cascade blackouts are generally catastrophic both economically and socially, when they occur. In this work, a transmission constrained, 5-bus power grid was simulated using PowerWorld and the impact of lines outages on the violation of loading capacities of network links was studied. We use the Widest Path Algorithm(WPA) and Power Flow Redistribution Algorithm(PFRA) to redistribute power flow in the network, using lines residual capacity and thermal capacity as criteria for redistribution. In cases, where (WPA) and (PFRA) could not reduce line loading, such path gives indication of where transmission should be reinforced. In this work, we propose a new and innovative techniques for mitigation of cascade blackout and well as network reinforcement.