Modeling and Evaluating Power Grid Resilience Under Extreme Space Weather

Abstract

The geomagnetically induced current (GIC) produced during extreme geomagnetic storms can easily lead to large‐scale blackouts in China due to the increase in the scale of its electric power grid. A power grid's resilience is its capability to resist various natural hazards, withstand primary failures, and quickly resume normal operation. To avoid power grid damages, this study developed a resilient power grid, incorporating failure, power flow calculation and recovery models under a uniform induced geoelectric field. We chose a system's performance loss as the resilience evaluation indicator, which intuitively reflected a system's loss under GIC. In addition, the recovery model was optimized using a genetic algorithm, and two resilience improvement measures were proposed. The IEEE‐RTS‐79 system, consisting of 10 generators, 24 buses and 5 transformers, was chosen as an example to verify the feasibility of this study. The results show that the genetic algorithm and optimization measures effectively enhanced the system's resilience indicator and provided a reference for preventing system damages under GIC and quick recovery after possible failures.