March | 2021

Managing electric grids for resilience
Managing electric grids for resilience

Operational capabilities…

…and their role in enabling grid resilience

Forecasting

Agile and accurate forecasting is key to preparing for and responding to high impact disruptions

Accurate forecasting facilitates an anticipatory and responsive operational posture. This includes short term, day ahead and within day forecasting of electric demand across customer and network segments; supply profiles from baseload, renewable, DER and other sources; grid inertia for various supply and demand profiles; energy and ancillary service prices; vulnerable segments in the network; customer call volumes in the event of outages.

Adaptive operations

The ability to anticipate and adapt to disruptions with minimal loss of service requires reliable simulation, modeling and optimization capabilities 

T&D operators have the opportunity to operationalize a range of business capabilities that drive adaptability to out-of-the-normal situations. For example:

  • Dynamic operating envelopes for LV/MV distribution segments to optimize DER based on hosting capacity
  • Real-time grid inertia calculations and risk assessments
  • Advanced Demand Response capabilities such as rules-based load shedding algorithms that can be quickly executed via automation contracts
  • Balancing and ancillary services market simulations

Ecosystem collaboration

Power system participants need the ability to exchange information and collaborate during a crisis for an effective and orchestrated response

As the orchestrator of the grid, the system operator is uniquely positioned to facilitate fluid collaboration and information sharing amongst generators, networks, balancing service providers, aggregators, large customers, data agencies and others to enable coordinated responses and recovery during disruptions. The Transparency Platform operated by ENTSO-E in Europe is a good example of an essential operational data sharing initiative. There is also a need and an opportunity for advanced situational awareness tools that enable a consistent and real-time view amongst system stakeholders of important parameters during a crisis.

Training

The quality of operator and technician skills are the primary determinant of the efficacy of crisis responses.

Investing in event simulators and sandboxes to train technical personnel will become an increasingly essential capability especially in light of the increasing complexity of power grids

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