Infrastructure Adequacy Electricity grid resilience facing natural events
Electricity grid resilience facing natural events
Natural events can lead to outages with prolonged load interruptions. Although such events are characterized by a high level of unpredictability, utilities have ways of reducing and mitigating their consequences. Some practices for each type of event can be used:
• Lightning strokes is one of the prime factors of unplanned supply interruptions in power systems. Some classical solutions are: (i) cost-effective equipment can be installed on the distribution and transmission lines to find the path of a lightning strike; (ii) correctly use of surge arresters to reduce the induced voltages, that is, surge arresters perform better when grounding resistance is lower, and the adjacent arresters have shorter distances; and (iii) install shielding wire to decrease the li ghtning stroke frequency on the power lines.
• Floods: A change identification method to map floods in urban areas using satellite images can be used to classify images near rivers and forecast where a new flood is likely to happen. The aim is to find the optimal hardening plan for the system resilience and the optimal functioning of the electric power system under the worst event. Some possible actions are: (i) pre-allocation of mobile energy generators; (ii) replan the optimal switching locations using distributed energy resource locations; and (iii) r eview the current power grid to feed critical clients .
• Hurricanes: These events result in a forced reduction in load because of distribution equipment damage . In this situation some solutions are: (i) i nvest in an operation using microgrids concepts in a distribution system to increase the self - healing ability and enable the distribution system to restore sooner during outage occurrence . Also consider the possibility of integration of distributed energy resources in microgrids ; (ii) u se proactive scheduling in response to imminent hurricanes in multiple energy carrier microgrid; (iii) a self - healing methodology by sectionalizing the distribution system into microgrid after the occurrence of a natural disaster can be used; and (iv) d uring hurricanes, develop a method to alleviate the cascading effect in transmission networks using a risk - based preventive islanding method .
• Windstorms: can cause equipment failure when hitting the power grid. To mitigate such effects, utilities must carry out customized projects for transmission and distribution lines for regions with a higher incidence of these events. In the first stage, empirical models are created based on historical and weather data. The second stage involves the real - time tracking of windstorms. During the design of new or assessing the old transmission lines, an acceptable level of compromise between cost and probability of failure must be maintained. In addition, it is possible to establish a framework for microgrids proactive management to coordinate demand-side resources, secure voltage regulation, and generation rescheduling.
• Wildfires: can cause intense temperature, leading to an explosion of transformers and changing dielectric and mechanical properties of T&D lines. Some possible solutions are to : (i) substitute oil-immersed transformers with dry types; (ii) a pply real-time transmission line monitoring to identify the dynamic line rating during normal or contingency cases; (iii) use a cost-effective fire detection mechanism with different technologies; (iv) use distributed framework of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles to avoid humans from dangerous dynamic fire tracking . It reduces the operational cost, correctly tracks the fire progress, avoids in-flight crashes, and collaborate well with nearby vehicles.