Many scholars have used different metrics to quantify power grid vulnerability in the literature, but how correlated these metrics are is an interesting topic.
Power grid vulnerability is a major concern of our society, and its protection problem is often formulated as a tri-level defender attacker defender model.
Numerous definitions of what a critical node 'is' have been previously investigated, including junctions in cell-signaling or protein-protein networks [1], highly influential individuals [2], smart grid vulnerability [3], targeted vaccination for pandemic prevention [4,5], or keys to decipher brain functionality [6].
While the report is the most authoritative yet on the subject, the grid's vulnerability has long been obvious to independent engineers and to the electric industry itself, which has intermittently tried, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, to rehearse responses.
But Mourad Debbabi, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal, who also has had a career in private industry, thinks the grid is vulnerable -- and that vulnerability goes all the way down to new "smart meters".
Last year, the Wall Street Journal quoted US intelligence officials describing how cyber spies had charted the on-off controls for large sections of the US grid and its vulnerability to hacking.
But Mr. Wang said he had simply been trying to find ways to enhance the stability of power grids by exploring potential vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability to shocks was examined in the control, the dilated ventricles, and in the dilated ventricles that also incorporated currents through SAC as a function of local strain, by constructing vulnerability grids.
Still, the investigation revealed new vulnerabilities in the grid.
The addition of US Cybercommand to this mix made things still worse: General Alexander has warned of attacks on the US's electrical grid that might rely on vulnerabilities similar to the ones the US exploited to attack Iran's nuclear program.
