PNNL

Abstract

In the face of escalating extreme weather events and potential grid failures, ensuring the resilience of the power grid has become increasingly challenging. Energy storage systems hold great potential for enhancing grid resilience against such events by providing reliable power during peak demand periods. However, accurately quantifying the size, location, and investment costs of new energy storage assets is a complex task, as energy storage planning decisions depend on the investment choices of other generation technologies and the integration of new transmission projects. This paper presents an innovative capacity expansion planning framework for long-term planning to determine the optimal size, type, and location of energy storage and generation technologies, as well as the optimal transmission line expansion, in the presence of extreme weather events. More specifically, our climate-informed framework integrates the dynamics of heatwave and wildfire probabilities into the long-term planning process, seeking the least-cost investment solutions to comply with decarbonization goals while ensuring grid resilience. The proposed planning framework was applied to the Western Interconnection 40-zone system, with investment decisions reported for the planning years 2030, 2035, and 2040. Simulation results indicate that incorporating extreme events into the planning process enhances system resilience, which comes with an estimated 10% increase in overall investment costs.