A multi-state model for assessing the impact of insufficient wide-area situational awareness

Wide-area Situational Awareness (WASA) is of key importance in power system operators' decision-making. Lack of WASA can set in motion cascading failures, or contribute to the development of a blackout. Inadequate WASA was actually identified as one of the major causes of several blackouts in the last decade. A variety of factors in a power system control centre can affect the formation of WASA, especially during emergencies. This paper discusses the main sources of WASA errors and explores the effect of these errors on operators' response to an electrical disturbance. For this purpose, a multi-state model based on Markov modeling is developed to examine the impact of insufficient WASA on the probability of catastrophic blackouts. The proposed model is illustrated using the IEEE 24-bus Reliability Test System. (6 pages)