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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Improving power grid transient stability by plug-in electric vehicles
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) Gajduk, A.; Todorovski, M.; Kurths, J.; Kocarev, L.
    Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can serve in discharge mode as distributed energy and power resources operating as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) devices and in charge mode as loads or grid-to-vehicle devices. It has been documented that PEVs serving as V2G systems can offer possible backup for renewable power sources, can provide reactive power support, active power regulation, load balancing, peak load shaving, can reduce utility operating costs and can generate revenue. Here we show that PEVs can even improve power grid transient stability, that is, stability when the power grid is subjected to large disturbances, including bus faults, generator and branch tripping, and sudden large load changes. A control strategy that regulates the power output of a fleet of PEVs based on the speed of generator turbines is proposed and tested on the New England 10-unit 39-bus power system. By regulating the power output of the PEVs we show that (1) speed and voltage fluctuations resulting from large disturbances can be significantly reduced up to five times, and (2) the critical clearing time can be extended by 20-40%. Overall, the PEVs control strategy makes the power grid more robust.
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    Complex network approach to characterize the statistical features of the sunspot series
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) Zou, Y.; Small, M.; Liu, Z.; Kurths, J.
    Complex network approaches have been recently developed as an alternative framework to study the statistical features of time-series data. We perform a visibility-graph analysis on both the daily and monthly sunspot series. Based on the data, we propose two ways to construct the network: one is from the original observable measurements and the other is from a negative-inverse- transformed series. The degree distribution of the derived networks for the strong maxima has clear non-Gaussian properties, while the degree distribution for minima is bimodal. The long-term variation of the cycles is reflected by hubs in the network that span relatively large time intervals. Based on standard network structural measures, we propose to characterize the long-term correlations by waiting times between two subsequent events. The persistence range of the solar cycles has been identified over 15-1000 days by a power-law regime with scaling exponent γ = 2.04 of the occurrence time of two subsequent strong minima. In contrast, a persistent trend is not present in the maximal numbers, although maxima do have significant deviations from an exponential form. Our results suggest some new insights for evaluating existing models.
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    Individual nodes contribution to the mesoscale of complex networks
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) Klimm, F.; Borge-Holthoefer, J.; Wessel, N.; Kurths, J.; Zamora-Lopez, G.
    The analysis of complex networks is devoted to the statistical characterization of the topology of graphs at different scales of organization in order to understand their functionality. While the modular structure of networks has become an essential element to better apprehend their complexity, the efforts to characterize the mesoscale of networks have focused on the identification of the modules rather than describing the mesoscale in an informative manner. Here we propose a framework to characterize the position every node takes within the modular configuration of complex networks and to evaluate their function accordingly. For illustration, we apply this framework to a set of synthetic networks, empirical neural networks, and to the transcriptional regulatory network of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We find that the architecture of both neuronal and transcriptional networks are optimized for the processing of multisensory information with the coexistence of well-defined modules of specialized components and the presence of hubs conveying information from and to the distinct functional domains.
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    General scaling of maximum degree of synchronization in noisy complex networks
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) Traxl, D.; Boers, N.; Kurths, J.
    The effects of white noise and global coupling strength on the maximum degree of synchronization in complex networks are explored. We perform numerical simulations of generic oscillator models with both linear and non-linear coupling functions on a broad spectrum of network topologies. The oscillator models include the Fitzhugh-Nagumo model, the Izhikevich model and the Kuramoto phase oscillator model. The network topologies range from regular, random and highly modular networks to scale-free and small-world networks, with both directed and undirected edges. We then study the dependency of the maximum degree of synchronization on the global coupling strength and the noise intensity. We find a general scaling of the synchronizability, and quantify its validity by fitting a regression model to the numerical data.
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    Detours around basin stability in power networks
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2014) Schultz, P.; Heitzig, J.; Kurths, J.
    To analyse the relationship between stability against large perturbations and topological properties of a power transmission grid, we employ a statistical analysis of a large ensemble of synthetic power grids, looking for significant statistical relationships between the single-node basin stability measure and classical as well as tailormade weighted network characteristics. This method enables us to predict poor values of single-node basin stability for a large extent of the nodes, offering a node-wise stability estimation at low computational cost. Further, we analyse the particular function of certain network motifs to promote or degrade the stability of the system. Here we uncover the impact of so-called detour motifs on the appearance of nodes with a poor stability score and discuss the implications for power grid design.