Monte Carlo based Maintenance Resource Allocation Considering Vulnerability

In complex interconnected electrical power grids, there are some minor incident may trigger cascading collapse and blackout of large portions of the grid. Component and hidden failure have been proved to play an important role in the cascading collapse. Adequate maintenance of power units may lower the probability of mis-operation and component failure of protection system and prevent the propagation of the fault to develop into a cascading collapse. In this paper, a simple cascading collapse model is proposed to allocate vulnerable portion of the protection system and optimize allocation of maintenance resource using Monte Carlo simulation. Numerical examples on Huazhong power networks are given to illustrate how the model can be used for maintenance resource allocation and protection system enhancements to reduce vulnerabilities.