The Risk of Hidden Failures to the United States Electrical Grid and Potential for Mitigation

Hidden failures present a noticeable impact to the reliability of the United States electrical grid. These hazards are responsible for protective device misoperations and can cause multiple-element contingencies across nearby components, greatly increasing the likelihood of cascading events. This paper provides an in-depth overview of the causes and risks of hidden failures and discusses methods for identifying critical locations where hidden failures could pose a risk of cascading failure, with the ultimate goal being to identify efficient mitigation methods that can prevent their occurrence in protective relays.