Seismic-Resilient Bulk Power Grids: Hazard Characterization, Modeling, and Mitigation.

The operation of the electricity delivery infrastructure is environmentally driven and vulnerable to a wide range of high-impact low-probability (HILP) hazards. Among different classes of HILP disasters, earthquakes are one of the most unpredictable hazards which may lead to widespread disruptions of mission-critical services and infrastructures. This article introduces a comprehensive framework for modeling and characterization of seismic hazards, vulnerability assessment of electric systems to the earthquake, and corrective actions and mitigation strategies ensuring operational resilience. The Monte Carlo simulation is employed to produce a realistically large set of possible earthquake scenarios to capture the stochastic nature of seismic hazards. An inclusive approach is then introduced based on the fundamental principles of fragility curves to assess the vulnerability of power generation facilities in the face of HILP earthquakes. A new seismic risk metric is suggested that takes into account both hazard and vulnerability probabilities, as well as the financial consequences due to postquake disruptions in power generation stations. Along with the generation redispatch strategy as a conventional mitigation solution following a nontrivial contingency, a new mitigation strategy centered on corrective network topology control is formulated to maximize the load outage recovery following HILP disruptions. The proposed decision support tool enables a swift restoration and improved resilience in dealing with the aftermath of the HILP earthquakes. Efficacy of the proposed framework is numerically analyzed and verified on both the IEEE 57-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]