A Comparison of Malicious Interdiction Strategies Against Electrical Networks

How well can a typical electrical power system withstand a sophisticated malicious attack undertaken against its exposed branches? This paper seeks to articulate a comprehensive answer to this fundamental question of wide societal importance. New and established techniques that an attacker might use to select promising attack targets are considered, spanning complex network analysis, metaheuristics, and classical optimization. By simulating this wide gamut of attack strategies on several test power systems, each modeled under many representative operating states, this paper comprehensively articulates the expected robustness of electrical power grids against coordinated branch interdictions.