Dynamic contingency analysis of a power system under natural disaster conditions

Abstract

In September 2017, one of the most devastating natural disasters occurred in the island of Puerto Rico. A hurricane of category 5 with wind speeds reaching as high as 175mph hit the island. This Hurricane, named Maria, impacted the island greatly and left the population without power for weeks, some even for months. The government declared a humanitarian crisis on the island. The challenging part of the power grid in Puerto Rico is its location and the fact that it does not have a tie to the rest of the U.S. electric grid. This means the grid needs to be self-sufficient and cannot rely on external help. Even though natural disasters are inevitable, their impact on the power grid can be reduced by making the grid more resilient. To do this, it is necessary to identify the vulnerable parts of the network to be reinforced. In the case of a hurricane for instance, this could be strengthening the vulnerable transmission line towers, raising the overhead conductors to higher heights in areas with a high risk of inundation, protecting the substations from being flooded by the surge water, or deploying more distributed energy resources in order to enable islanded operation. This goal of this research is to analyze the vulnerabilities of the Puerto Rico power grid and identify the weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This is achieved by studying both static and dynamic operation of the system in order to identify the components that need to be reinforced. Doing this may help the grid against potential future disasters either by allowing it to withstand the event completely or by shortening the duration and/or scope of outages.