2017 Volume 73 Issue 5 Pages I_215-I_223
Cascading failure is a phenomenon where a local failure triggers a global propagation of failures, leading to serious damage to the whole system. In mutual interdependent infrastructures, failures in one system can spread out across multiple systems because of existence of interdependency. This study focuses on the interdependency between power grid and communication system and proposes a simulation model for cascading failure in interdependent networks which considers both failures by overloading and failures by dependency. In the numerical analysis, we input conditions which are based on Italy blackout in 2003 to the proposed model. The numerical results imply that even if a network itself is robust against cascading failure, vulnerability can be increased even when the network has weak interdependency with another network. It is necessary for the assessment of the vulnerability of interdependent networks to take properties of interdependency into consideration.