Resilience of Electricity Distribution Networks Against Extreme Weather Conditions

Abstract

Extreme weather forms a major threat to electricity distribution networks and has caused many severe power outages in the past. A reliable electrical grid is something most of us take for granted, but storms, heavy snowfall, and other effects of extreme weather continue to cause disruptions in electricity supply. This paper contributes to ensuring the continuity of electricity supply under adverse weather events. The aim is to describe and to analyze how the continuity of electricity supply can be ensured in the case of extreme weather. Based on the research, the energy sector is highly dependent on the existing locations and structures of the current infrastructure. Aging infrastructure is commonly seen as a main vulnerability factor. The most vulnerable parts of the electricity distribution system to extreme weather conditions are the networks built as overhead lines. However, the resilience of the networks against extreme weather can be increased significantly in all phases of a disaster management cycle. Methods and technological solutions proposed in this paper to alleviate such problems include adjacent forest management and periodic aerial inspections, situational awareness, distributed generation and microgrids, placement of overhead lines, underground cabling, and unmanned air vehicles. However, it must be noticed that the methods and their value for stakeholders are context-dependent. Thus, their applicability and appropriateness may change over time.

Application of UAS and Revit for Pipeline Design

“…In the infrastructure sector, the frequent applications of UAS are focused on bridge inspections undertaking cracks inspections and 3D reconstruction tasks [4] [5] [6] [7], in water supply quantification of damages by natural events and infrastructure maintenance [8] [9] [10]. In the case of roads pavement [11], electrical grids [12] [13], telecommunication, railway, tunnels [14] and sewers identification [15] there is a gap in scientific literature and maturity of the UAS operation. Furthermore, the current implementations are focused on reducing human risk exposure, gather and digitalise data for specific tasks and increase the amount and speed data in projects.…”

“…The literature presents the cases of sewers location [15], road pavement [11], dams inspections [9] and the frameworks of UAS bridge inspections, [4]; undertaking a UAS 2D and 3D approach according with the task to be addressed [3]. Therefore, the framework of the automation process lies in the decision to adopt strategies thought digitalisation with-and without reality reconstruction.…”

A review on resilience assessment of energy systems

“…Finally, 17 studies assess the first three biophysical functions of the resilience curve together, and only 6 studies analyse all four resilience functions (Forssén et al, 2017;Gong & Liang, 2017;Kim et al, 2017;Nan & Sansavini, 2017;Ouyang et al, 2012;Urciuoli et al, 2014), of which only three used a quantitative approach. This emphasizes the difficulty to comprehensively quantify resilience, and the need to specifically focus on the 'reconfigure' function.…”

A Resilience Toolbox and Research Design for Black Sky Hazards to Power Grids

“…Damage assessment (DA) [27,[34][35][36] provides the size and extent of the damage and resources required. Damage assessment is likely to be associated with the control component and direct business and manage technology business processes.…”