Introduction

 

1. UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA IMPACT-ORIENTED INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAMME (IIRG) 2020-2022

Project code: IIRG001A-2020IISS

Title: Improvement of Power Distribution System Resilience Against Flash Floods

Abstract

Flash floods have been identified as one of the major weather-related events causing power disruption outages in Malaysia. The current practice of switching off all the power substations during the floods leads to huge area of power outages. Therefore, the aim of this research is to improve the resilience of distribution system in ensuring minimize power outages. This research will develop a mathematical model to examine the impact of flash floods on power distribution system. Resilience metric will be proposed to measure preventive and adaptive capabilities of the system. Utilising this resilience metric, a network restoration strategy to reroute the network to supply electrical power by avoiding flooded area will be formulated. Validation of the proposed network restoration strategy will be conducted using IEEE and TNB systems. This research is expected to provide a pragmatic solution to enhance the resilience of power grid at the distribution system against flash floods.

Graphical Abstract

                                      

Introduction

Power systems are ill-prepared for natural disasters such as windstorms, floods, and earthquakes. These disastrous events have caused wide-spread power outages and are more frequent in modern times, owing to global climate change. These event leads not only result in loss of energy to the customers and loss of revenue to the utility but also impose indirect costs on society and nation. A resilient distribution system is therefore crucially needed and remarkable efforts are being made to achieve the goal. Although there are some works in improving distribution system resiliency, the focus causes is on the windstorms. None focusing on the flash floods, which one of the major causes of power outages in Malaysia. Therefore, this work will develop an effective restoration strategy technique for distribution system. Different from existing restoration strategy that addressing single fault at a time, flash floods that can lead to multiple faults will be considered. The developed technique is expected to minimise flash floods impacts on electricity supply, which in turn enhances the power system resilience.

Hypothesis

1. Analysis of the technical impacts of flash floods on operations of Malaysian distribution system will reveal the opportunities of improvements from the perspective of planning and operation.
2. A new mathematical model of flash flood events based on Malaysian scenario will give a better insight on the impact of floods on operations of power distribution system.
3. Formulation of resilience metric considering preventive and adaptive features of the system will help to further improve the resiliency of power distribution system.
4. An optimal restoration strategy will enable to reroute the network to supply electrical power by avoiding flooded area.

Research Questions

1. Which mathematical model is suitable to present the behaviour of flash flood events on operations of Malaysian power distribution system?
2. How to incorporate preventive and adaptive characteristics of distribution system in resilience metric?
3. How to formulate restoration strategy considering the proposed resilience metric?
4. What is the impact of formulated restoration strategy on the resilience of Malaysian power distribution network?

Objective

1. To examine the technical impacts of flash floods on the operations of distribution system in Malaysia.
2. To develop a mathematical model of flash flood behaviours for power system analysis.
3. To design a comprehensive resilience metric suitable for power distribution network.
4. To develop an optimal network restoration strategy for improving the resiliency of distribution system.