This Focus Issue brings together recent notable advances in the field of dynamical systems and complexity science on the subject of the non-linear collective behavior of power grids and energy systems. Due to the ongoing energy transition, mandated by the epochal challenge that is the decarbonization of human activity, our energy infrastructure is evolving rapidly. This challenges us to understand and rethink current and potential future power grids.
In response to this urgent need, the last decade has seen the emergence of a new direction of theoretical research on complex power grids. There is a long tradition of studying models of the complex power grid in the electrical engineering and control theory literature, with the foundational second-order Kuramoto model appearing first in 1981 in the paper by Bergen and Hill,1 leading up to the seminal synchronization results of Dörfler et al.2 and the basin of attraction of the...
