Seismic vulnerability assessment of power transmission networks using complex-systems based methodologies

This paper develops a methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of power transmission systems. The analysis is carried out from the perspective of system’s form (i.e., topological importance of elements) and system’s strength (i.e., probability of failure). The form combines the electrical properties of the network (e.g., electrical distance, power flow) with the systems approach via hierarchical network decomposition. On the other hand, the strength focuses on evaluating the probability of failure by means of the physical consequences of multiple earthquakes scenarios. The results are compared with different complex-systems vulnerability assessment techniques. As a result, it can be concluded that the proposed approach exhibit features that provide a better understanding of the vulnerability than traditional approaches.