We analyze a 19-year time series of North American electric power transmission system blackouts. Contrary to previously reported results we find a fatter than exponential decay in the distribution of inter- occurrence times and evidence of seasonal dependence in the number of events. Our findings question the use of self-organized criticality, and in particular the sandpile model, as a paradigm of blackout dynamics in power transmission systems. Hopefully, though, they will provide guidelines to more accurate models for evaluation of blackout risk.
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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Risk and Insurance with number
0510001.
Length: 5 pages Date of creation: 08 Oct 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpri:0510001
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 5 , 3 . To appear in: H. Takayasu (ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd Nikkei Econophysics Symposium, Springer-Tokyo, 2005/2006 Contact details of provider: Web page: http://129.3.20.41
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