No Arabic abstract
The dynamics of power-grid networks is becoming an increasingly active area of research within the physics and network science communities. The results from such studies are typically insightful and illustrative, but are often based on simplifying assumptions that can be either difficult to assess or not fully justified for realistic applications. Here we perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of three leading models recently used to study synchronization dynamics in power-grid networks -- a fundamental problem of practical significance given that frequency synchronization of all power generators in the same interconnection is a necessary condition for a power grid to operate. We show that each of these models can be derived from first principles within a common framework based on the classical model of a generator, thereby clarifying all assumptions involved. This framework allows us to view power grids as complex networks of coupled second-order phase oscillators with both forcing and damping terms. Using simple illustrative examples, test systems, and real power-grid datasets, we study the inherent frequencies of the oscillators as well as their coupling structure, comparing across the different models. We demonstrate, in particular, that if the network structure is not homogeneous, generators with identical parameters need to be modeled as non-identical oscillators in general. We also discuss an approach to estimate the required (dynamical) parameters that are unavailable in typical power-grid datasets, their use for computing the constants of each of the three models, and an open-source MATLAB toolbox that we provide for these computations.
An imperative condition for the functioning of a power-grid network is that its power generators remain synchronized. Disturbances can prompt desynchronization, which is a process that has been involved in large power outages. Here we derive a condition under which the desired synchronous state of a power grid is stable, and use this condition to identify tunable parameters of the generators that are determinants of spontaneous synchronization. Our analysis gives rise to an approach to specify parameter assignments that can enhance synchronization of any given network, which we demonstrate for a selection of both test systems and real power grids. Because our results concern spontaneous synchronization, they are relevant both for reducing dependence on conventional control devices, thus offering an additional layer of protection given that most power outages involve equipment or operational errors, and for contributing to the development of smart grids that can recover from failures in real time.
Power Grids and other delivery networks has been attracted some attention by the network literature last decades. Despite the Power Grids dynamics has been controlled by computer systems and human operators, the static features of this type of network can be studied and analyzed. The topology of the Brazilian Power Grid (BPG) was studied in this work. We obtained the spatial structure of the BPG from the ONS (electric systems national operator), consisting of high-voltage transmission lines, generating stations and substations. The local low-voltage substations and local power delivery as well the dynamic features of the network were neglected. We analyze the complex network of the BPG and identify the main topological information, such as the mean degree, the degree distribution, the network size and the clustering coefficient to caracterize the complex network. We also detected the critical locations on the network and, therefore, the more susceptible points to lead to a cascading failure and even to a blackouts. Surprisely, due to the characteristic of the topology and physical structure of the network, we show that the BPG is resilient against random failures, since the random removal of links does not affect significantly the size of the largest cluster. We observe that when a fraction of the links are randomly removed, the network may disintegrates into smaller and disconnected parts, however, the power grid largest component remains connected. We believe that the even a static study of the network topology can help to identify the critical situations and also prevent failures and possible blackouts on the network.
While frameworks based on physical grounds (like the Drift-Diffusion Model) have been exhaustively used in psychology and neuroscience to describe perceptual decision-making in humans, analogous approaches for more complex situations like sequential (tree-like) decision making are still absent. For such scenarios, which involve a reflective prospection of future options to reach a decision, we offer a plausible mechanism based on the internal computation of the Shannons entropy for the different options available to the subjects. When a threshold in the entropy is reached this will trigger the decision, which means that the amount of information that has been gathered through sensory evidence is enough to assess the options accurately. Experimental evidence in favour of this mechanism is provided by exploring human performances during navigation through a maze on the computer screen monitored with the help of eye-trackers. In particular, our analysis allows us to prove that: (i) prospection is effectively being used by humans during such navigation tasks, and a quantification of the level of prospection used is attainable, (ii) the distribution of decision times during the task exhibits power-law tails, a feature that our entropy-based mechanism is able to explain, in contrast to classical decision-making frameworks.
Adaptation plays a fundamental role in shaping the structure of a complex network and improving its functional fitting. Even when increasing the level of synchronization in a biological system is considered as the main driving force for adaptation, there is evidence of negative effects induced by excessive synchronization. This indicates that coherence alone can not be enough to explain all the structural features observed in many real-world networks. In this work, we propose an adaptive network model where the dynamical evolution of the node states towards synchronization is coupled with an evolution of the link weights based on an anti-Hebbian adaptive rule, which accounts for the presence of inhibitory effects in the system. We found that the emergent networks spontaneously develop the structural conditions to sustain explosive synchronization. Our results can enlighten the shaping mechanisms at the heart of the structural and dynamical organization of some relevant biological systems, namely brain networks, for which the emergence of explosive synchronization has been observed.
We study synchronization dynamics of a population of pulse-coupled oscillators. In particular, we focus our attention in the interplay between networks topological disorder and its synchronization features. Firstly, we analyze synchronization time $T$ in random networks, and find a scaling law which relates $T$ to networks connectivity. Then, we carry on comparing synchronization time for several other topological configurations, characterized by a different degree of randomness. The analysis shows that regular lattices perform better than any other disordered network. The fact can be understood by considering the variability in the number of links between two adjacent neighbors. This phenomenon is equivalent to have a non-random topology with a distribution of interactions and it can be removed by an adequate local normalization of the couplings.