A Case Study on National Electricity Blackout of Turkey

Abstract

The necessary precautions should be taken in order to prevent service interruption during the maintenance and repairing of electricity networks. Among these measures, emergencies that may occur in the network should be foreseen, hazard scenarios should be created, and solutions should be developed. If these are not done, a blackout, which first follows the local regions and eventually results in the collapse of the national electrical network, may take place. In this study, the national blackout of Turkey that occurred on 31 March 2015 is examined. The information about Turkey’s electrical infrastructure and its energy policies was provided, as well as the reliability assessment criteria for power systems and examples of significant blackouts that occurred worldwide. The direct relation between line voltage and system frequency was provided with mathematical derivation by using real data taken from a local industrial zone. Then, a case study is presented to demonstrate this direct relation. The causes, development process, and consequences of the blackout are discussed in detail, and some recommendations are offered to increase the security of the electrical infrastructure and to prevent future occurrences while ensuring the sustainability of the system.