Congestion dependencies in the European gas pipeline network during crises

Abstract

Conflicts, geo-political crises, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters can turn large parts of energy distribution networks off-line, creating unexpected congestion in the remaining infrastructure. Given the importance of the security of natural gas supply, we need models that enable the management of network congestion, especially during crises. We develop a decentralized model of congestion control to explore the effects of removing supply or transit countries from the network. Recently, in R. Carvalho et. al. PLoS ONE, Vol. 9, no. 3, 2014, we evaluated how cooperation between countries helps to mitigate the effect of crises. Here, we extend our previous results by exploring the structure of downstream and upstream congestion dependencies between countries.