Resilience Investment Against Extreme Weather Events Considering Critical Load Points in an Active Microgrid
Source abstract
Abstract
The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events pose significant threats to power systems, particularly at the distribution level. The most detrimental consequence of such events is observed in critical loads due to high outage costs. As a result, there is a pressing need for utilities to invest in enhancing system resilience, which requires a comprehensive resilience investment framework and metrics to evaluate system performance. This paper proposes a distribution system resilience assessment framework to guide strategic investment decisions. The framework incorporates a mathematical model that estimates system restoration time after an extreme event, considering the criticality of loads, the interdependence of component failures and repair sequences, and the availability of repair crews. In addition, two new resilience metrics—disconnected load point hours (DLH) and normalized DLH (NDLH)—are introduced, which provide a more comprehensive view of system resilience by reflecting both vulnerability and the ability to withstand and recover from extreme events. Case studies are performed on a modified IEEE 69-bus test system utilizing the developed framework. The results evaluate the effectiveness of different resilience investment strategies, including infrastructure hardening, distributed energy resources management, and repair process coordination, in improving the system resilience for maintaining the critical loads and the overall distribution system.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Optimal Power Flow Distribution · Infrastructure Resilience and Vulnerability Analysis · Power System Reliability and Maintenance
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A2, Canada
Funding
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
References (33)
Show source-provided references
1. (2024, May 21). 2022 U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters in Historical Context | NOAA Climate.gov, Available online: http://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2022-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters-historical.
2. (2024, April 03). Hurricane Ida Caused at Least 1.2 Million Electricity Customers to Lose Power—U.S. Energy Information Admin-istration (EIA), Available online: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=49556.
3. (2024, April 03). Power Restored to More than 90% of Louisiana Customers Affected by Hurricane Ida. Available online: https://www.entergynewsroom.com/news/power-restored-more-than-90-louisiana-customers-affected-by-hurricane-ida/.
4. Proactive Robust Hardening of Resilient Power Distribution Network: Decision-Dependent Uncertainty Modeling and Fast Solution Strategy10.1109/TASE.2025.3564483 ↗
5. Improving Power Distribution Resilience Through Optimal PV and BES Allocation With a Cost-Based Optimization Framework for Normal and Emergency Conditions10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3544662 ↗
6. Resilience Assessment of Distribution Systems Integrated With Distributed Energy Resources10.1109/TSTE.2020.2994174 ↗
7. Fard, M.F., Sahraei-Ardakani, M., Ou, G., and Liu, M. (2022, January 1–3). Targeted Hardening of Electric Distribution System for Enhanced Resilience against Earthquakes. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE 31st International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), Anchorage, AK, USA.10.1109/ISIE51582.2022.9831593 ↗
8. Resilience Enhancement of Multi-microgrid System of Systems Based on Distributed Energy Scheduling and Network Reconfiguration10.1007/s42835-023-01724-4 ↗
9. Co-optimization of repairs and dynamic network reconfiguration for improved distribution system resilience10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119245 ↗
10. Dubey, A., and Poudel, S. (2017, January 16–20). A robust approach to restoring critical loads in a resilient power distribution system. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, Chicago, IL, USA.10.1109/PESGM.2017.8274597 ↗
11. Using EVs as distributed energy resources for critical load restoration in resilient power distribution systems10.1049/iet-gtd.2019.1561 ↗
12. Resiliency-Driven Multi-Step Critical Load Restoration Strategy Integrating On-Call Electric Vehicle Fleet Management Services10.1109/TSG.2022.3155438 ↗
13. A new Look-ahead Restoration of Critical Loads in the Distribution Networks during Blackout with considering Load curve of Critical Loads10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106873 ↗
14. Resilience-oriented intentional islanding of reconfigurable distribution power systems10.1007/s40565-019-0567-9 ↗
15. A Novel IoT-Based Controlled Islanding Strategy for Enhanced Power System Stability and Resilience10.3390/smartcities7060149 ↗
16. Improving distribution system resilience by undergrounding lines and deploying mobile generators10.1016/j.epsr.2022.108804 ↗
17. Techno-economic hardening strategies to enhance distribution system resilience against earthquake10.1016/j.ress.2021.107682 ↗
18. Distribution system resilience improvement against hurricanes: Optimal line hardening according to reconfiguration potentials
19. Leddy, L., Jenket, D., Thomas, D.-M., Ericson, S., Cox, J., Grue, N., and Hotchkiss, E. (2023). Measuring and Valuing Resilience: A Literature Review for the Power Sector.10.2172/1999382 ↗
20. Age-dependent resilience assessment and quantification of distribution systems under extreme weather events10.1016/j.ijepes.2023.109089 ↗
21. Metrics and quantitative framework for assessing microgrid resilience against windstorms10.1016/j.ijepes.2018.07.025 ↗
22. Risk assessment of cascading failures in power systems with increasing wind penetration10.1016/j.epsr.2022.108392 ↗
23. Microgrids for Enhancing the Power Grid Resilience in Extreme Conditions
24. Multi-timescale risk-averse restoration for interdependent water–power networks with joint reconfiguration and diverse uncertainties10.1016/j.ress.2025.111083 ↗
25. Optimizing the operation of energy storage embedded energy hub concerning the resilience index of critical load10.1016/j.est.2022.103999 ↗
26. Critical Load Restoration Using Distributed Energy Resources for Resilient Power Distribution System10.1109/TPWRS.2018.2860256 ↗
27. Risk-Based Active Distribution System Planning for Resilience Against Extreme Weather Events10.1109/TSTE.2022.3220561 ↗
28. Multi-phase microgrid resiliency assessment framework against extreme weather events10.1049/enc2.70006 ↗
29. Brown, R. (2024, June 18). Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Deployment of Utility Infrastructure Upgrades and Storm Hardening Programs, Available online: https://ftp.puc.texas.gov/public/puct-info/industry/electric/reports/infra/utlity_infrastructure_upgrades_rpt.pdf.
30. Tarjan, R. (1971, January 13–15). Depth-first search and linear graph algorithms. Proceedings of the 12th Annual Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory (swat 1971), East Lansing, MI, USA.10.1109/SWAT.1971.10 ↗
31. Development of a New Procedure for Reliability Modeling of Wind Turbine Generators10.1109/TPAS.1983.318006 ↗
32. Optimum placement of shunt capacitors in a radial distribution system for substation power factor improvement using fuzzy GA method10.1016/j.ijepes.2015.11.056 ↗
33. (2025, March 25). Including Weather Data into Weather Data Queries. Available online: https://www.visualcrossing.com/.