IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijcist/v11y2015i1p4-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowing power grids and understanding complexity science

Author

Listed:
  • Martí Rosas-Casals
  • Sandro Bologna
  • Ettore F. Bompard
  • Gregorio D'Agostino
  • Wendy Ellens
  • Giuliano Andrea Pagani
  • Antonio Scala
  • Trivik Verma

Abstract

Complex networks theory has been well established as a useful framework for studying and analysing structure, dynamics and evolution of many complex systems. Infrastructural and man-made systems like power grids, gas and water networks and the internet, have been also included in this network framework, albeit sometimes ignoring the huge historical body of knowledge surrounding them. Although there seems to exist clear evidence that both complexity approach in general, and complex networks in particular, can be useful, it is necessary and profitable to put forward some of the limits that this scheme is facing when dealing with not so complex but rather complicated systems like the power grid. In this introductory paper, we offer a critical revision of the usefulness of the complexity and complex networks' approach in this latter case, highlighting both its strengths and weaknesses. At the same time we emphasise the disconnection between the so called complex and the more traditional engineering communities as one of the major drawbacks in the advent of a true body of understanding, more than simply knowing the subtleties of this kind of complex systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Martí Rosas-Casals & Sandro Bologna & Ettore F. Bompard & Gregorio D'Agostino & Wendy Ellens & Giuliano Andrea Pagani & Antonio Scala & Trivik Verma, 2015. "Knowing power grids and understanding complexity science," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 11(1), pages 4-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijcist:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:4-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=67399
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John H. Miller & Scott E. Page, 2007. "Social Science in Between, from Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life," Introductory Chapters, in: Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, Princeton University Press.
    2. John H. Miller & Scott E. Page, 2007. "Complexity in Social Worlds, from Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life," Introductory Chapters, in: Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, Princeton University Press.
    3. Sergey V. Buldyrev & Roni Parshani & Gerald Paul & H. Eugene Stanley & Shlomo Havlin, 2010. "Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7291), pages 1025-1028, April.
    4. Réka Albert & Hawoong Jeong & Albert-László Barabási, 2000. "Error and attack tolerance of complex networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 406(6794), pages 378-382, July.
    5. Lubos Buzna & Limor Issacharoff & Dirk Helbing, 2009. "The evolution of the topology of high-voltage electricity networks," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1/2), pages 72-85.
    6. Pagani, Giuliano Andrea & Aiello, Marco, 2013. "The Power Grid as a complex network: A survey," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(11), pages 2688-2700.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tio, Adonis E. & Hill, David J. & Ma, Jin, 2020. "Can graph properties determine future grid adequacy for power injection diversity?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 550(C).
    2. Dirk Helbing & Farzam Fanitabasi & Fosca Giannotti & Regula Hänggli & Carina I. Hausladen & Jeroen van den Hoven & Sachit Mahajan & Dino Pedreschi & Evangelos Pournaras, 2021. "Ethics of Smart Cities: Towards Value-Sensitive Design and Co-Evolving City Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Abedi, Amin & Gaudard, Ludovic & Romerio, Franco, 2019. "Review of major approaches to analyze vulnerability in power system," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 153-172.
    4. Gianluca Fulli & Marcelo Masera & Catalin Felix Covrig & Francesco Profumo & Ettore Bompard & Tao Huang, 2017. "The EU Electricity Security Decision-Analytic Framework: Status and Perspective Developments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Lucas Cuadra & Miguel Del Pino & José Carlos Nieto-Borge & Sancho Salcedo-Sanz, 2017. "Optimizing the Structure of Distribution Smart Grids with Renewable Generation against Abnormal Conditions: A Complex Networks Approach with Evolutionary Algorithms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-31, July.
    6. Scala, Antonio & De Sanctis Lucentini, Pier Giorgio, 2016. "The equal load-sharing model of cascade failures in power grids," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 462(C), pages 737-742.
    7. Lucas Cuadra & Sancho Salcedo-Sanz & Javier Del Ser & Silvia Jiménez-Fernández & Zong Woo Geem, 2015. "A Critical Review of Robustness in Power Grids Using Complex Networks Concepts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-55, August.
    8. Daniel A. Eisenberg & Jeryang Park & Thomas P. Seager, 2017. "Sociotechnical Network Analysis for Power Grid Resilience in South Korea," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2017, pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bier, Vicki & Gutfraind, Alexander, 2019. "Risk analysis beyond vulnerability and resilience – characterizing the defensibility of critical systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(2), pages 626-636.
    2. Gangwal, Utkarsh & Singh, Mayank & Pandey, Pradumn Kumar & Kamboj, Deepak & Chatterjee, Samrat & Bhatia, Udit, 2022. "Identifying early-warning indicators of onset of sudden collapse in networked infrastructure systems against sequential disruptions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 591(C).
    3. Kashyap, G. & Ambika, G., 2019. "Link deletion in directed complex networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 514(C), pages 631-643.
    4. Kashin Sugishita & Yasuo Asakura, 2021. "Vulnerability studies in the fields of transportation and complex networks: a citation network analysis," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-34, March.
    5. Kim, Dong Hwan & Eisenberg, Daniel A. & Chun, Yeong Han & Park, Jeryang, 2017. "Network topology and resilience analysis of South Korean power grid," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 465(C), pages 13-24.
    6. Citera, Emanuele & Sau, Lino, 2019. "Complexity, Conventions and Instability: the role of monetary policy," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201924, University of Turin.
    7. Theodosio, Bruno Miller & Weber, Jan, 2023. "Back to the classics: R-evolution towards statistical equilibria," ifso working paper series 28, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    8. Chen, Lei & Yue, Dong & Dou, Chunxia, 2019. "Optimization on vulnerability analysis and redundancy protection in interdependent networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 523(C), pages 1216-1226.
    9. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    10. Andrew W. Bausch, 2014. "Evolving intergroup cooperation," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 369-393, December.
    11. Levent Yilmaz, 2011. "Toward Multi-Level, Multi-Theoretical Model Portfolios for Scientific Enterprise Workforce Dynamics," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 14(4), pages 1-2.
    12. Deng, Ye & Wu, Jun & Tan, Yue-jin, 2016. "Optimal attack strategy of complex networks based on tabu search," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 442(C), pages 74-81.
    13. Mark Lubell & Adam Douglas Henry & Mike McCoy, 2010. "Collaborative Institutions in an Ecology of Games," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 287-300, April.
    14. Wang, Jianwei & Cai, Lin & Xu, Bo & Li, Peng & Sun, Enhui & Zhu, Zhiguo, 2016. "Out of control: Fluctuation of cascading dynamics in networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 462(C), pages 1231-1243.
    15. Gianluca Fulli & Marcelo Masera & Catalin Felix Covrig & Francesco Profumo & Ettore Bompard & Tao Huang, 2017. "The EU Electricity Security Decision-Analytic Framework: Status and Perspective Developments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, March.
    16. Zhou, Yaoming & Wang, Junwei, 2018. "Efficiency of complex networks under failures and attacks: A percolation approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 512(C), pages 658-664.
    17. Gräbner, Claudius, 2016. "From realism to instrumentalism - and back? Methodological implications of changes in the epistemology of economics," MPRA Paper 71933, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Michael Rothgang & Jochen Dehio & Bernhard Lageman, 2019. "Analysing the effects of cluster policy: What can we learn from the German leading-edge cluster competition?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1673-1697, December.
    19. Wang, Weihong & Chen, MingMing & Min, Yong & Jin, Xiaogang, 2016. "Structural diversity effects of multilayer networks on the threshold of interacting epidemics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 254-262.
    20. Khakzad, Nima & Reniers, Genserik & Abbassi, Rouzbeh & Khan, Faisal, 2016. "Vulnerability analysis of process plants subject to domino effects," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 127-136.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijcist:v:11:y:2015:i:1:p:4-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=58 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.