On Synchronization and Security in Power Networks

Abstract: We present some recent results on security and stability of power networks. Regarding cyber-physical security, we discuss the resilience of power and mass transport networks against attacks cast by an omniscient adversary. Our algebraic and graph-theoretical tests characterize the fundamental limitations of static and dynamic monitors. We propose centralized and decentralized monitors for attack detection and identification – combining waveform relaxation techniques with geometric control methods.  Regarding transient stability and synchronization problems, we present novel algebraic conditions for synchronization in Kuramoto oscillators and transient stability in power systems. Our conditions relate synchronization in a power network to certain graph-theoretical properties of the underlying electric network.  The results reveal elegant connections with the theory of coupled oscillators and multi-agent dynamical systems.

This is joint work with Florian Dorfler and Fabio Pasqualetti.

Biography: Francesco Bullo received the Laurea degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Padova in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1999. From 1998 to 2004, he was affiliated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a Professor with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  His students' papers were

finalists for the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (2002, 2005, 2007), and the American Control Conference (2005, 2006, 2010).  He is the coauthor of the book "Geometric Control of Mechanical Systems" (Springer, 2004) and of the book "Distributed Control of Robotic Networks" (Princeton, 2009).  His main research interest is multi-agent networks with application to robotic coordination, distributed computing and power networks.

Francesco Bullo's homepage