Dynamic Simulation of the Arizona-Southern California Blackout to Develop a Wide Area Testbed

Power system blackouts occur due to system-wide instability brought forth through a combination of dynamic events. Due to availability of system-wide synchrophasor data, it has become possible to conceive and apply real-time protection and control schemes that detect causes and symptoms of instabilities, and respond to arrest the progression of blackouts. However, detailed dynamic data from an actual blackout would be desirable for validation of such schemes. This paper describes the process of dynamically simulating the September 8, 2011 blackout in the Southwestern United States. Through this process, it is shown how educated assumptions can be made to bridge the gap between the data typically provided in blackout reports and the data actually needed for simulation. Results from the simulation are compared with published results to show the accuracy of the simulated model.