From Delaunay triangulation to topological data analysis: generation of more realistic synthetic power grid networks

Abstract Assessing novel methods for increasing power system resilience against cyber-physical hazards requires real power grid data or high-quality synthetic data. However, for security reasons, even basic connection information for real power grid data are not publicly available. We develop a randomised model for generating realistic synthetic power networks based on the Delaunay triangulation and demonstrate that it captures important features of real power networks. To validate our model, we introduce a new metric for network similarity based on topological data analysis. We demonstrate the utility of our approach in application to IEEE test cases and European power networks. We identify the model parameters for two IEEE test cases and two European power grid networks and compare the properties of the generated networks with their corresponding benchmark networks.