IEEE JOURNAL ON EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO.

2, JUNE 2017 173

Guest Editorial
Complex Network for Modern Smart Grid
Applications (Part 1: Analysis and Application)

T HIS special issue of the IEEE J OURNAL ON E MERG -

ING AND S ELECTED T OPICS IN C IRCUITS AND S YS -
TEMS (JETCAS) aims at identifying, addressing, and
to power systems practitioners and show that the results are
highly implementable, by publishing research that addresses
real applications in modern smart grids, as opposed to purely
disseminating state-of-the-art research in theory of complex theoretical concepts, and (ii) we want to expand the study
systems with applications to smart grids. of more complex power grids and other distributed power
With growing attentions on environmental concerns, power generation systems using developed complex network theory.
systems are becoming increasingly complex and environmen- This special issue does not deal with complex networks or
tally friendly due to the integration of renewable energy. power grids as separate topics, but instead provides the unique
Consequently, the concept of smart grid was introduced to deal venue for a crossover of complex network applications and
with complexity of the growing power systems. According to power system developments.
Department of Energy (DOE), smart grid is an electric system Recent trends of complex networks for modern smart grid
that uses two-way communication technologies, control sys- application include: 1) modelling and analysis of complex
tems, and computer processing across the entire power system. power grids with complex network theory; 2) applications of
Significant progress has been made during the past decade, complex systems to design, control and manage smart grids;
including (i) the transformation of centralized generation- and 3) study of stability, reliability, and resilience issues in
transmission-distribution-consumer structures to more decen- smart grids.
tralized and prosumer interactive ones, (ii) enhancing the This special issue contains 25 papers from many excellent
linkage between physical systems and cyber systems for submissions, and is divided into two parts. Part 1 contains a
monitoring and managing the power grid under more variable survey paper and 13 papers on two themes: 1) cascading failure
and intermittent operation conditions, and (iii) analyzing large analysis based on complex network theory, and 2) applications
amount of data from monitoring systems and developing of complex systems to design advanced architectures, control
real-time remedial control actions for avoiding system-wide strategies and energy management for power system. Part 2
cascading blackouts. contains 11 papers on a single theme: power system stability,
On the other hand, complex network theory has been a reliability, and resilience analysis.
critical emerging topic in recent years. It has been widely Part 1 starts with a survey paper, Complex networks theory
applied to graph theory, probability and statistics, statistical for modern smart grid applications: A survey, by the Guest
mechanics, control theory, etc. Moreover, many real-world Editors, which aims to provide the reader a review of studying
large-scale networks can be modelled using complex net- complex network theory for modern smart grid applications.
work theory, such as the internet, telecommunication net- The paper first gives a brief overview of complex network the-
works, transportation networks, social networks, biological ory, and then explores the topological characteristics, statistic
networks, and power grids. Complex network theory aims at characteristics such as self-organized criticality and critically
analyzing diverse static topological characteristics as well as slow down, and dynamical characteristics including synchro-
dynamical behaviors in large-scale inter-connected systems. nizations, consensus control, and pinning control. Finally, the
With significant developments during these years, complex paper focuses on how complex network theory can be applied
network theory is able to capture more intrinsic characteristics to modern smart grids in structural vulnerability assessment,
of complex real-world systems. When it comes to power cascading blackouts, grid synchronization, network configu-
grids, great efforts have been made in adopting complex rations, distributed droop control, pinning control for micro-
network theory to understanding, prediction, and control of the grid autonomous operations, and effective grid expansions.
grids. The paper also addresses some emerging topics and future
With tremendous growth in the area of emerging technolo- perspectives.
gies, it is worth investigating modern smart grid using complex Following this survey, five papers focusing on cascading
network theory. There are two main motivations for this, (i) we failure analysis based on complex network theory are pre-
want to make the work in complex network theory accessible sented. Cascading failure analysis on power system draws
a wide attention from all over the world due to frequent
occurrence of large blackouts during last two decades. Com-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JETCAS.2017.2709040 plex network theory is able to simulate such phenomenon
2156-3357 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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174 IEEE JOURNAL ON EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, JUNE 2017

from a global perspective and provides useful information algorithm in multi-agent systems and the lambda-iteration
on identifying critical components and testing mitigation optimization algorithm in the economic dispatch of power
strategies. systems. The algorithm considers the global active power
The first paper, entitled Modeling the dynamics of cas- constraint by adding virtual pinner and it can deal with the
cading failure in power systems by X. Zhang, et al., uses optimization problem with any initial states.
a circuit-based power flow model to study cascading failure The paper, entitled Microgrid energy management com-
propagation process, and combine it with a stochastic model bining sensitivities, interval and probabilistic uncertainties
to describe the uncertain failure time instants. An extended of renewable generation and loads by V. Mohan, et al.,
chemical master equation method is adopted to analyze the provides an optimal energy management approach combining
network failure dynamics. It has been verified that the model sensitivities, interval, and probabilistic uncertainties of wind
produces propagation profiles that contain the key features and solar sources and loads in microgrid. Affine arithmetic
displayed in historical blackout data. is used to model the interval uncertainties and sensitivities in
The second paper, entitled A comparison of malicious nodal power injections.
interdiction strategies against electrical networks by P. Cuffe, The paper, entitled Automated generation algorithm for
presents a simplified cascading failure model to assess how synthetic medium voltage radial distribution systems by
electrical grids might fare against attacks deliberately orches- E. Schweitzer, et al., presents an algorithm for automatically
trated against their branches. Contextual, topological and com- synthesizing realistic medium voltage distribution feeders, and
putational techniques were deployed to select which branches thus circumvent the data access problem. The algorithm treats
to attack. It shows that most attack strategies on most systems distribution system feeders as graphs with nodes and edges,
are quite different when system state changes: one instanta- each with various properties, and leverages this structure to
neous snapshot of a system is therefore inadequate for drawing search for emerging statistical patterns.
general conclusions on its robustness. The paper, entitled Sizing and siting of large-scale batteries
The third paper, entitled Probabilistic model for studying in transmission grids to optimize the use of renewables by
blackouts in power networks by Z. Galias, describes a model L. Fiorini, et al., focuses on a new research challenge regarding
that combines the admittance model of the network and the the siting of the storage on the transmission grid and its
probabilistic model of failures of its components. The author appropriate sizing. The problem is tackled by considering real-
shows that increasing capacities of network components does istic configurations based on the IEEE-RTS-96 bus and data
not necessarily reduce vulnerability of a network to power coming from the Italian transmission operator, and evaluating
blackouts. Furthermore, a method improving robustness has novel economic and complex network-based metrics on these
been proposed using this model. configurations.
The fourth paper, entitled Effects of cyber coupling on The paper, entitled Mixed integer second order cone relax-
cascading failures in power systems by X. Zhang, et al., ation with dynamic simulation for proper power system island-
provides a deterministic circuit-based model to study the ing operations by T. Ding, et al., proposes an AC power flow
cascading failure processes in power networks and develops a based optimization model with dynamic simulation to obtain
stochastic model to investigate the effects of cyber coupling a proper splitting strategy. The method includes optimization
on the cascading failures. The effects of power overloading, of a splitting strategy satisfying the steady-state constraints,
contagion and interdependence between power grids and cyber and transient stability evaluation of the strategy by dynamic
networks on failure propagations in the coupled system have simulation.
been taken into consideration. The paper, entitled Agent-based distributed control
The last paper in this group, entitled Multi-layer interaction schemes for distributed energy storage systems under cyber
graph for analysis and mitigation of cascading outages by attacks by D. D. Sharma, et al., demonstrates that due to
W. Ju, et al., proposes a multi-layer interaction graph on cas- cyber-attacks the decisions of power exchange by distributed
cading outages in a power system. This multi-layer interaction energy storage systems (DESSs) are erroneous and these
graph provides a practical framework of using the interaction power exchanges may be beyond their power capacities.
graph for analysis and prediction of outage propagation and A fuzzy logic based information deviation detection scheme
decision making on mitigation actions. The model comprises is proposed for detection of effects of cyber-attacks on the
multiple layers of interaction graph respectively depicting information. Moreover, two distributed control schemes, based
key system components and their key links that contribute on leader-follower distributed control schemes, are provided
the most to propagation of cascading outages from different to decide the power exchange by DESS under cyber-attack
perspectives. scenarios.
The next eight papers demonstrate the application of com- The paper, entitled Proximal Jacobian distribution optimal
plex systems to design advanced architectures, control strate- power flow in a distributed cyber-physical environment by
gies and energy management for power system. M. Carrasco, et al., provides a proximal Jacobian distributed
The paper, entitled Coordinated active power dispatch for optimal power flow model for the dispatch of converter-based
a microgrid via distributed lambda iteration by J. Hu, et al., power distribution systems. A suitable cyber architecture to
proposes a novel distributed optimal dispatch algorithm for realize such model is developed. The corresponding cyber
coordinating the operation of multiple micro units in a costs are quantified and the proposed architectures scalability
microgrid, which has incorporated the distributed consensus is analyzed through numerical experiments.
IEEE JOURNAL ON EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, JUNE 2017 175

The last paper, entitled Information-energy flow computa- H ERBERT H O -C HING I U, Guest Editor
tion and cyber-physical sensitivity analysis for power systems School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
by S. Xin, et al., proposes an information-energy flow model The University of Western Australia
and develops a matrix-based computational approach. Mutual Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
influence of the cyber and physical parts can be calculated
directly with the help of the methods.
This special issue has a highly selective review process,
in order to comply with the high-quality standards of the C HIA -C HI C HU, Guest Editor
IEEE J OURNAL ON E MERGING AND S ELECTED T OPICS IN Department of Electrical Engineering
C IRCUITS AND S YSTEMS . The Guest Editors would like National Tsing Hua University
to thank the authors who committed much time and energy Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
to making this a successful special issue. Moreover, we
would like to thank volunteer reviewers for providing many
valuable comments and for insights into making difficult C HIKA O. N WANKPA, Guest Editor
decisions on this issues contents. We are grateful to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Editor-in-Chief, Yen-Kuang Chen, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Drexel University
Eduard Alarcon, as well as the Senior Editorial Board of this Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
journal for their support and advices. Last but not least, we
would like to thank IEEE Publishing Operations personnel
for their efforts in finalizing this special issue. We hope that
the readers will enjoy the carefully picked papers for this C HAI WAH W U, Guest Editor
issue and that this special issue will contribute to facilitating IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
further research in this significant area. Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 USA

Herbert Ho-Ching Iu (S98M00SM06) received the B.Eng. degree (Hons.) in electrical

and electronic engineering from The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 1997, and the
Ph.D. degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, in 2000.
Since 2002, he has been with the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering,
The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, where he was initially a Lecturer and is
currently a Professor. He was a Visiting Lecturer with the University of Reims Champagne-
Ardenne, Reims, France, in 2004, and a Visiting Assistant Professor with The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University in 2006. He has authored over 100 published papers. He is a Co-
Editor of the Control of Chaos in Nonlinear Circuits and Systems (World Scientific, 2009)
and a Co-Author of Development of Memristor Based Circuits (World Scientific, 2013). His
research interests include power electronics, renewable energy, smart grid, nonlinear dynamics,
current sensing techniques, and memristive systems. He currently serves as a Guest Editor of
the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRIAL E LECTRONICS and an Associate Editor of IEEE
ACCESS, the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON C IRCUITS AND S YSTEMS II, the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON P OWER E LECTRONICS,
the International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine, and the International
Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos.

Chia-Chi Chu (M96SM15) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering
from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering
from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, in 1996.
He was a member of the Technical Staff with Avant Corporation, Fremont, CA, USA, from
1995 to 1996. From 1996 to 2006, he was a Faculty Member of Electrical Engineering with
Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. He was a Visiting Scholar with the University of
California at Berkeley, Berkeley, and The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, in 1999
and 2014, respectively. Since 2006, he has been a Faculty Member of Electrical Engineering
with National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, and is currently a Professor. His current
research interests include power system stability, fiexible ac transmission systems, and micro-
grid control. He was a recipient of the Young Author Award of the IEEE Control of Oscillations
and Chaos Conference in 1997 and the 8th International Conference on Power Electronics and
Drive Systems in 2009. He is currently the Chair of the Power and Energy Circuits and Systems
Technical Committee and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.
176 IEEE JOURNAL ON EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, JUNE 2017

Chika O. Nwankpa (M87SM04F13) received the Magistr Diploma degree in electric

power systems from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1986,
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Illinois Institute of
Technology, Chicago, in 1990.
He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with Drexel University,
Philadelphia, PA, USA. His research interests include power systems, nonlinear systems, and
stochastic systems.

Chai Wah Wu (S88M96SM00F01) received the B.S. degree in computer engineering

and the B.A. degree in cognitive science from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA, and
the M.A. degree in mathematics and the M.S./Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Since 1996, he has been with the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights,
NY, USA, as a Research Staff Member. He co-invented digital halftoning algorithms that are
used in various high speed printers and developed robust digital watermarking and multimedia
authentication algorithms. He is one of the main contributors and pioneers of the emerging
fields of chaotic communication systems and synchronization in coupled networks of dynamical
systems and has written two books on these subjects. He has authored over 200 papers and was
granted over 70 U.S. patents. His other research interests include cellular neural networks,
nonlinear dynamics of circuits and systems, peer-to-peer multimedia delivery, multimedia
security, and algebraic graph theory. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society and
an INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional. He received the IBM Research Outstanding Technical Achievement Award and
the IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation Award for this work. He has served as the Chair and a Technical Program
Committee Member for several international conferences. He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON
C IRCUITS AND S YSTEMS and served on the CAS Board of Governors. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE
Circuits and Systems Magazine and has been serving as an IEEE EAB Program Evaluator since 2006.