Dive Summary:
- A new study of spatial networks (Editor's Note: This report is paywalled) by physics professors at Bar Ilan University in Israel and Yeshiva University in New York, N.Y. suggests that spatial networks, such as the U.S. electrical grid, are "necessarily dependent on any number of critical nodes whose failure can lead to abrupt—and unpredictable—collapse," according to an article in Nature Physics.
- Shlomo Havlin, co-author of the study, believes the 2003 Northeast blackout is a prime example of this type of failure. "Whenever you have such dependencies in the system, failure in one place leads to failure in another place, which cascades into collapse," he said.
- Havlin argues the U.S. electrical grid could reduce the risk of failure by adding a few longer transmission lines that act as short cuts between separate areas of the grid.
Reactions:
“I suppose I should be open-minded to new research, but I'm not convinced. The problem is that this doesn’t reflect the physics of how the power grid operates.” — Jeff Dagle, electrical engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
“More connections may stabilize some processes, by, for instance, increasing the number of paths to generators, but also may destabilize others. One cannot make generic statements on this topic.” — Benjamin Carreras, physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory