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Abstract

Modern societies crucially depend on the robust supply with electric energy so that blackouts of power grids can have far reaching consequences. Typically, large scale blackouts take place after a cascade of failures: the failure of a single infrastructure component, such as a critical transmission line, results in several subsequent failures that spread across large parts of the network. Improving the robustness of a network to prevent such secondary failures is thus key for assuring a reliable power supply. In this article we analyze the nonlocal rerouting of power flows after transmission line failures for a simplified ACpower grid model and compare different strategies to improve network robustness. Weidentify critical links in the grid and compute alternative pathways to quantify the grid's redundant capacity and to find bottlenecks along the pathways. Different strategies are developed and tested to increase transmission capacities to restore stability with respect to transmission line failures. Weshow that local and nonlocal strategies typically perform alike: one can equally well cure critical links by providing backup capacities locally or by extending the capacities of bottleneck links at remote locations.