Cascading Power Failures

04/10/19

“How can a large-scale power outage occur from just a single component failure?”

The modern power grid is a feat of human ingenuity. One of the most interconnected systems in existence, it allows for terawatts of power generated to reach millions of consumers. However, this great interconnection comes with one drawback. If even one component fails, then the additional stress on other parts can cause more failures which can cascade until a completed blackout occurs. These Cascading Power Failures are a utility’s bane and resilience strategies must be developed to counter the probability of these events.