Smart Grid Topologies Paving the Way for an Urban Resilient Continuity Management

Smart Grid Topologies Paving the Way for an Urban Resilient Continuity Management

Sadeeb Simon Ottenburger, Thomas Münzberg, Misha Strittmatter
DOI: 10.4018/IJISCRAM.2017100101
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Abstract

The generation and supply of electricity is currently about to undergo a fundamental transition that includes extensive development of smart grids. Smart grids are huge and complex networks consisting of a vast number of devices and entities which are connected with each other. This opens new variations of disruption scenarios which can increase the vulnerability of a power distribution network. However, the network topology of a smart grid has significant effects on urban resilience particularly referring to the adequate provision of infrastructures. Thus, topology massively codetermines the degree of urban resilience, i.e. different topologies enable different strategies of power distribution. Therefore, this article introduces a concept of criticality adapted to a power system relying on an advanced metering infrastructure. The authors propose a two-stage operationalization of this concept that refers to the design phase of a smart grid and its operation mode, targeting at an urban resilient power flow during power shortage.
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1. Introduction

The increase of distributed energy resources (DERs) and the paradigm shift from automated meter reading to advanced metering infrastructures (AMIs) (Kabalci, 2016; Muscas, Pau, Pegoraro, & Sulis, 2015; Parhizi, Lotfi, Khodaei, & Bahramirad, 2015) may be seen as the fundamental drivers for various design or methodological approaches to find optimal solutions regarding smart grid (SG) reliability and resilience issues including topological design patterns like micro grid (MG) decompositions (Cox & Considine, 2013; Melike, Burak, & Hussein, 2011). The common perception of the principles of power management and control within a SG typically restricts to a hierarchical framework consisting of control mechanisms focusing on voltage and frequency stability as well as economic considerations (Ahumada, Cardenas, Saez, & Guerrero, 2016; Parhizi et al., 2015). These control mechanisms are important pillars of a reliable power distribution system. Resilience aspects of power systems applying SG technologies are moving more and more into the focus of scientific investigations - where especially smart solutions are considered as one crucial building block for power system resilience (Panteli & Mancarella, 2015; Venkata & Hatziargyriou, 2015).

The smart meter roll-outs are accompanied by critical public debates which are essentially related to fundamental security worries and the generally noticed increased vulnerability due to undesired manipulations from external parties, see for example (Aloul, Al-Ali, Al-Dalky, Al-Mardini, & El-Hajj, 2012; Goel, Hong, Papakonstantinou, & Kloza, 2015).

The concept of urban resilience encompasses various types of resilience dimensions such as the social, economic or physical infrastructure dimension (Bruneau et al., 2003; Cimellaro, 2016; Renschler et al., 2010). Critical infrastructure (CI) services such as the supply of electricity, drinking water, and health care provide vital services for the population. Thus, disruptions or failures of these services are hazardous and can lead to injuries or even losses of life, property damages, social and economic disruptions or environmental degradations. Therefore, CIs constitute a pivotal aspect in urban resilience considerations - establishing and implementing sophisticated continuity management (CM) concepts with respect to CIs may be regarded as one of the major factors for preserving or enhancing urban resilience. Most of the CIs like water supply, hospitals, pharmacies, and traffic- and transport systems rely on electricity. The circumstance of massive dependencies of other CIs to electrical power entitles the electrical power grid to be considered as a high ranked CI. But also, the provisioning of electricity to other physical infrastructures especially including households and companies constitutes to urban resilience. Approximately 99% of all enterprises are small or medium enterprises (SMEs) (Thiel & Thiel, 2010). Light weighted Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategies for SMEs are requested (Reuter, 2015). A future decentralized power distribution system, applying smart infrastructures, can enable more refined and smart power distribution mechanisms as a basic strategy to mitigate the impact of power scarcity (Liu, 2015; Panteli & Mancarella, 2015; Venkata & Hatziargyriou, 2015).

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