Rapid Evaluation and Response to Impacts on Critical End-Use Loads Following Natural Hazard-Driven Power Outages: A Modular and Responsive Geospatial Technology
The disparate nature of data for electric power
utilities complicates the emergency recovery and response
process. The reduced efficiency of response to natural
hazards and disasters can extend the time that electrical
service is not available for critical end-use loads, and in
extreme events, leave the public without power for extended periods. This article presents a methodology for the
development of a semantic data model for power systems
and the integration of electrical grid topology, population,
and electric distribution line reliability indices into a unified, cloud-based, serverless framework that supports
power system operations in response to extreme events. An
iterative and pragmatic approach to working with large and
disparate datasets of different formats and types resulted in
improved application runtime and efficiency, which is
important to consider in real time decision-making processes during hurricanes and similar catastrophic events.
This technology was developed initially for Puerto Rico,
following extreme hurricane and earthquake events in 2017
and 2020, but is applicable to utilities around the world.
Given the highly abstract and modular design approach,
this technology is equally applicable to any geographic
region and similar natural hazard events. In addition to a
review of the requirements, development, and deployment
of this framework, technical aspects related to application
performance and response time are highlighted.
Published: September 21, 2022
Citation
Royer P.D., W. Du, and K.P. Schneider. 2022.Rapid Evaluation and Response to Impacts on Critical End-Use Loads Following Natural Hazard-Driven Power Outages: A Modular and Responsive Geospatial Technology.International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 13, no. 3:415-434.PNNL-SA-176899.doi:10.1007/s13753-022-00413-6