# Asymmetry underlies stability in power grids

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.10952 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10952/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 Mar 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Noise-Resilient Quantum Machine Learning for Stability Assessment of Power Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.04855/) (2021)
- [Power-grid stability predictions using transferable machine learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.07562/) (2021)
- [On Symmetry for Characterizing Agent Heterogeneity in Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18538/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Behavioral homogeneity is often critical for the functioning of network systems of interacting entities. In power grids, whose stable operation requires generator frequencies to be synchronized--and thus homogeneous--across the network, previous work suggests that the stability of synchronous states can be improved by making the generators homogeneous. Here, we show that a substantial additional improvement is possible by instead making the generators suitably heterogeneous. We develop a general method for attributing this counterintuitive effect to converse symmetry breaking, a recently established phenomenon in which the system must be asymmetric to maintain a stable symmetric state. These findings constitute the first demonstration of converse symmetry breaking in real-world systems, and our method promises to enable identification of this phenomenon in other networks whose functions rely on behavioral homogeneity.