Abstract: Because of the highly interconnected nature of the modern power grid, local disturbances can have far-reaching effects. In particular, the failure of a transmission line induces power redistribution which may cause (1) further propagating line failures and (2) loss of power in parts of the network. Cascading failures are rare events, so it is difficult to study grid stability from an empirical approach. As an alternative, we aim to study analytic approximations for the failure rate of any particular line. In this talk, we introduce a stochastic dynamical model to describe power system behavior and study its invariant measure through an appropriate energy landscape. We present preliminary validation results for line failure-rate approximations and hint at their future applicability.