Large blackouts typically involve the cascading outage of transmission lines. However, little is known about the overall patterns of cascading outages. This research processes and initially examines observed utility data to explore the spatial spreading of cascading failure. The utility data is combined from two different sources, one year of recorded transmission line outages and a description of the grid connections. This requires extensive work relating different descriptions of the same grid. An initial analysis of the statistics of the spreading is presented, and the potential and implications of a new statistical approach to cascade spreading is assessed.
","abstract_html":"<p>Large blackouts typically involve the cascading outage of transmission lines. However, little is known about the overall patterns of cascading outages. This research processes and initially examines observed utility data to explore the spatial spreading of cascading failure. The utility data is combined from two different sources, one year of recorded transmission line outages and a description of the grid connections. This requires extensive work relating different descriptions of the same grid. An initial analysis of the statistics of the spreading is presented, and the potential and implications of a new statistical approach to cascade spreading is assessed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ding, Lingyun"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Ian Dobson"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-01-01","date_published":"2013-01-01","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:38:34Z","subjects":[],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-3566"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-3566","href":"https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-3566","code":true}]},{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13551/"],"render_values":[{"text":"archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13551/","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/27738","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Ian Dobson"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ding, Lingyun"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018-08-11T14:05:14.000"]},{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2020-06-30T02:50:30Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-06-30T02:50:30Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2013-01-01"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13551/"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-3566"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/27738"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Large blackouts typically involve the cascading outage of transmission lines. However, little is known about the overall patterns of cascading outages. This research processes and initially examines observed utility data to explore the spatial spreading of cascading failure. The utility data is combined from two different sources, one year of recorded transmission line outages and a description of the grid connections. This requires extensive work relating different descriptions of the same grid. An initial analysis of the statistics of the spreading is presented, and the potential and implications of a new statistical approach to cascade spreading is assessed.
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