Hybrid power systems design considering safety and resilience

Abstract

Hybrid power systems are becoming more popular nowadays as they provide a good transition towards renewable energy systems integration while still maintaining power sources from fossil fuels. Uncertainties based on seasonal changes, weather patterns and demand fluctuations have been considered. Disasters such as earthquake, tornado and hurricane are becoming more frequent and unpredictable as climate change is affecting major parts of the world. Safety and resilience are two important aspects that need to be taken into consideration in designing power systems due to the increase in extreme weather and natural disasters. Safety precautions are taken into consideration to withstand major damage and ensure the power system can continue to run smoothly with no or little interruption to the power supply. Previous studies focused on optimizing the cost and efficiency of the system based on season change, weather and demand fluctuations. The purpose of this research is to develop a novel methodology to design a hybrid power system considering resilience and safety aspects. This research primarily focuses on the use of Decision Matrix Risk Assessment Technique (DMRA) and Power Cascade Table (PCT) to evaluate the impact of disasters towards the power systems with and without safety consideration. The results of the case study have shown that the implementation of safety can reduce the total cost by up to USD209.3 M when catastrophic events occur.