Interdependent Complex Networks - How can we optimize stability of infrastructures?
Lynn Kaack
Can you imagine that your washing machine will turn itself off when your neighbors come home and start cooking dinner, and will continue one hour later? That large storage buildings pause their refrigerators when the wind is calm and the wind turbines don't generate electricity? This is how engineers see the future optimal power distribution. A transmission grid that is supervised digitally can easily accommodate renewable energies with their fluctuating supply and optimize the distribution in time on the demand side.
In my talk I will introduce the ideas and the problems of this "smart" grid evolution from a physics point of view. The currently developed systems are vulnerable and the technology is not at all ready to be implemented. Complex network analysis has recently focused on two or more interdependent networks, which offers methods to tackle these security issues. I am describing a system of two interconnected networks resembling the power grid and a communication network, which have led to a major outage in Italy in 2003.
