Vulnerability Assessment of Coupled Transportation and Multi-Energy Networks Considering Electric and Hydrogen Vehicles

With the burgeoning of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), as well as the emergence of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and plug-in hybrid electricity/hydrogen vehicles (PH2EVs), the synergistic effect of electricity, hydrogen, and transportation networks should be investigated. To enhance the security of the coupled network and ensure the reliability of the charging/refueling services of EVs, a vulnerability assessment is required to assist in system contingency planning as well as post-contingency measures. In this paper, a vulnerability assessment strategy is formulated for coupled transportation and multi-energy networks. First, a novel graph representation for the coupled transportation and multi-energy networks is proposed. Then, a critical asset identification tool is applied to find the vulnerability point of the coupled networks, and the transfer margin ratio (TMR) is put forward to assess the dynamic vulnerability level under cascading contingencies. Finally, a vulnerability envelope (the lower bound and upper bound of vulnerability) is found based on a bi-level optimization problem. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, case studies are performed on the IEEE 39-bus electricity network coupled with a 25-node transportation network and a 50-node hydrogen/gas network. It is verified that the vulnerable point of the coupled network can be found. Besides, it is concluded that the penetration of FCVs and PH2EVs can enhance energy flexibility through the energy substitution effect and thus mitigate the system vulnerability. © 2023 IEEE.