Sustaining Critical Social Services During Extended Regional Power Blackouts

Abstract

Despite continuing efforts to make the electric power system robust, some risk remains of widespread and extended power outages due to extreme weather or acts of terrorism. One way to alleviate the most serious effects of a prolonged blackout is to find local means to secure the continued provision of critical social services upon which the health and safety of society depend. This article outlines and estimates the incremental cost of a strategy that uses small distributed generation, distribution automation, and smart meters to keep a set of critical social services operational during a prolonged power outage that lasts for days or weeks and extends over hundreds of kilometers.

Providing Limited Local Electric Service During a Major Grid Outage: A First Assessment Based on Customer Willingness to Pay

“…For the purpose of illustration, we consider implementing a low‐amperage backup service for a distribution feeder that serves 2,500 customers. Following the strategies suggested by Narayan and Morgan, we assume that either the distribution utility itself has sufficient DG to supply 20A service to all 2,500 customers on the islanded feeder(s) (), or that it has contracted with private DG owners who can supply that much power in the event of an outage. In either case, we assume that most of the time these DG units are being used for nonemergency purposes so that it is only necessary to cover the cost of emergency generation during the outage.…”

“…The total cost of upgrades to the feeder and operation of the associated DG was on the order of $100,000 for a feeder covering 2,500 customers with additional annual operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of approximately 5% of this initial capital cost (i.e., $5,000). We assume that these technologies last 20 years based on Narayanan and Morgan . Of course, as noted below, if these cost estimates are optimistic or if some of the necessary upgrades have not already been accomplished and are charged to adding the ability to supply emergency service, costs could be higher.…”

“…Many distribution systems now have installed automation that allows utilities to automatically change the topology of the distribution networks, for example, changing the location from which a circuit is fed, isolating a damaged portion of a circuit, or connecting two circuits together . More advanced automated sectionalizing switches (such as S&C electric company's IntelliRupter®) and related protection devices can communicate with each other, sense direction of current flow, and adapt appropriately as the configuration of a distribution feeder changes.…”

The Risk of Residential Peak Electricity Demand: A Comparison of Five European Countries

“…However, for a correct balancing between supply and demand to function, the implications of aggregate demand need to be explored. Congestion associated with peak demand is a problem for trading electricity across borders not only because of the risks of blackouts (i.e., excessive demand) [7], but also because intermittent renewable sources of energy in one Member State may be generating so much electricity that the transmission capacity to other countries is exceeded (i.e., excessive supply). Congestion costs across the most congested interconnectors in Europe are currently estimated to be €1.3bn each year [8].…”

The Adoption of New Smart-Grid Technologies: Incentives, Outcomes, and Opportunities

“…RPSs (a quantity instrument) and price instruments, such as taxes on fossil-fuel use and subsidies for renewably sourced energy generation, can change the generation fuel mix to sources perceived as less damaging to the environment, thus reducing the amount of damage caused by negative externalities. 5 Finally, the ability to more effectively incorporate clustered distributed-generation resources in the form of microgrids may improve system operators' ability to provide sustained electricity to critical social services in the event of power blackouts (Narayanan and Morgan, 2012).…”