Disaster management and resilience in electric power systems

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Basic and strategic applied research
Applied Research and Development

AREA STUDIES (American Studies and Anglophone Area Studies)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr P Mancarella
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
University of Manchester

Standard

EPSRC

01 February 2016

30 April 2018

27 months

£241,076

Electrical engineering

North West

Newton Programme

Dr P Mancarella, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester

Dr R Cienfuegos, School Of Engineerin, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Professor J Milanovic, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester
Dr R Moreno, UNLISTE, University of Chile
Dr F Ordonez, UNLISTE, University of Chile
Dr M Panteli, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester
Professor H Rudnick, School Of Engineerin, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Professor D Shaw, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Dr J de la Llera, School Of Engineerin, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

Project Contact, Government of Chile
Project Contact, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA
Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd
Project Contact, AGC Mirabel Chile
Project Contact, Economic Load Dispatch Centre of the Central Interconnected System (CDEC-SIC), Chile
Project Contact, Economic Load Dispatch Centre of Norte Grande Interconnected System (CDEC-SING), Chile
Project Contact, Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles (SEC), Chile
Project Contact, Valhalla Energy, Chile
Project Contact, Price Waterhouse Coopers
Project Contact, Consejo Minero de Chile AG
Project Contact, Colbún SA, Chile
Project Contact, Chile Renewable Energy Center (CER)
Project Contact, Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP), Chile
Project Contact, Empresas Eléctricas A.G, Chile
Project Contact, National Energy Commission (CNE), Spain
Project Contact, National Centre for Integrated Management of Natural Disasters (CIGIDEN), Chile
Project Contact, Technical University of Malaysia (UTeM)
Project Contact, Solar Energy Research Center SERC Chile
Project Contact, ABSL Space Products
Project Contact, International Organization for Standardization ( ISO), Switzerland

Electricity infrastructure is key to sustain human and economic well-being since it supplies energy to industrial, commercial and financial sectors, critical services (health, traffic control, water supply), communication networks, and hence almost all activities in modern societies. Consequently, the effects of long electricity blackouts have demonstrated impacts on economic activities and social stability and security. A framework for disaster management and resilience of the power sector is needed, beyond the occurrence of "average" outages contemplated in current security standards. This framework should consider network management under the occurrence of natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis that may cause major blackouts, and assess proper measures to manage the associated disasters. Developing and implementing such a framework will be crucial to increase the opportunities for Chile and other countries, especially developing and low-income ones located around the Pacific Ring of Fire which are particularly exposed to the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis.In this context, this project will undertake holistic risk analyses associated with natural hazards on electricity networks along with identification of mitigation and adaptation measures that can allow us to manage the arising disasters. This holistic perspective of disaster management and resilience will be supported by development of mathematical models to firstly assess risks related to high impact low probability events, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, on the electric power systems. These models will then serve to identify an optimal portfolio of preventive and corrective measures that can support mitigation of impacts and compare different adaptation strategies. In particular, besides classical infrastructure reinforcement, we will assess how operational measures for disaster management, for instance though distributed energy systems, e.g., based on communities and microgrids, can provide system resilience.Building on this last point, resilience can in fact also be built through citizens and communities and by how they prepare for, and respond to, power outages. Such preparedness could for instance be led by the electricity companies and targeted at the individual and community levels by sharing accountability for response across the official respondents, local officials, community groups, individual citizens, and the electricity companies. The aim is for households to have response strategies that are complemented by resilience measures prepared for (and by) the community. Such shared responsibility is becoming the response culture in the UK (with the very recent recognition of spontaneous volunteers as a source of untrained, unknown support which converges at the time of an incident). In developing countries, where the capacity of official respondents may be insufficient given the scale of the disaster, the reliance on community preparedness and spontaneous emergence ofwilling helpers is more acute to lessen the effects of an incident and quicken the return to normality. Thus, in addition to more technical features, the framework developed here will explicitly include community resilience as a way to lessen the impact of outages and manage disasters. By analysing several case studies in Chile based on both data from past experiences and simulations, we will propose a general framework for disaster management and network and community resilience which can be applicable to other developing and low-income countries. We will use the research findings to develop networks standards following disasters along with a standard on community resilience to power outages. These standards will include socio-economic and engineering indicators that can support monitoring of network resilience and readiness to withstand natural, catastrophic events as well as quantifying impacts of such events after they occur, enhancing quality of post-morterm analysis

17/02/16