Reliability of Electric Power Network and Grid

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Large-scale power outages occurred on August 14, 2003 covering a 10,000 square-mile area involving 50 million people in more than 10 states in Midwest and northeastern part of this nation and southern Canada. A number of major centers of population such as Metropolitan New York were impacted severely causing human inconvenience and miseries of all kind while power recovery effort gradually took effect. The disaster may have been caused by, as many suspected, malfunction of a critical power component under excessive power demand in the summer heat. It might take some time, however, to identify the exact cause of this worst power blackout in the history of USA. The objective of this exploratory research is to acquire and archive potentially perishable data related to the outages. We are particularly interested in the way in which the outage initiated and cascaded throughout the power grids. The data to be collected will span a spectrum of mechanical, electrical and socio-economic impact with significant emphasis on the data that are needed for grid reliability evaluation. PI of this proposed research studied extensively on reliability of utility networks and power grids to resist seismic conditions under which similar outages could happen. In these studies, transmission networks and grids, involving Los Angels Department of Water and Power.s (LADWP.s) and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water.s (MLGWP.s) systems were used as living laboratories. These studies were based upon the analytical simulation of power flow, using Electric Power Research Institute.s Interactive Power Flow (IPFlow) code, which is the industry standard, for realistic performance evaluation of Western Electric Coordinating Council.s (WECC.s) power grid and of Memphis transmission network. Initially, the study was motivated by an accident in August 1996 in Oregon, in which a tree came into contact with a segment of a high-voltage aerial power line, disabling its transmission capability. The result was a wide-spread blackout in several states and cities, including part of Los Angeles. In fact, the research demonstrated that a local disturbance and instability can propagate almost instantly far away to remote locations. The research became more seriously significant after the tragic September 11 event from homeland security point of view and has just added another layer of relevance since the August 14, 2003 power outage. This is because disablement can be man-made, accidental or malicious, and cause a devastatingly negative impact on socio-economic welfare of the directly affected regions immediately and of the nation in the long run. PI.s experience and expertise plays a crucial role in identifying the data that are indispensable and therefore should be collected for the ensuing reliability analysis of the physical components, utility networks and power grids. Since the preparedness for the emergency of the utility organizations, individually and in collaboration, is critical in minimizing the consequence of outages, the data will include the record of implemented organizational response processes. Beyond these, data are needed to record how transportation, water and other lifeline systems and business/industrial sectors behaved under the interruption of power supply. The estimated economic losses will be updated as more information emerges, although the estimation will be somewhat speculative within the first year after the event. Broader Impact of this research is that it will contribute to significant scientific advances in predictive systems analysis methods and protective countermeasures, and it will benefit tens of millions of customers of the utility systems, and local, regional and national economy. Pedagogically the research project is truly beneficial in training and encouraging junior researchers to become more interested in the electric power related research where lack of research talents has been conspicuous.