Abstract
Important changes are underway in the U.S. power industry in the way that electricity is sourced, transported, and utilized. Disruption from extreme weather events and cybersecurity events is bringing new scrutiny to power-system resilience. Recognizing the complex social and technical aspects that are involved, this article provides a meta-level framework for coherently evaluating and making decisions about power-system resilience. It does so by examining net-zero carbon strategies with quantitative, qualitative, and integrative dimensions across discrete location-specific systems and timescales. The generalizable framework is designed with a flexibility and logic that allows for refinement to accompany stakeholder review processes and highly localized decision-making. To highlight the framework’s applicability across multiple timescales, processes, and types of knowledge, power system outages are reviewed for extreme weather events, including 2021 and 2011 winter storms that impacted Texas, the 2017 Hurricane Maria that affected Puerto Rico, and a heatwave/wildfire event in California in August 2020. By design, the meta-level framework enables utility decision-makers, regulators, insurers, and communities to analyze and track levels of resilience safeguards for a given system. Future directions to advance an integrated science of resilience in net-zero power systems and the use of this framework are also discussed.
Highlights
Accepted: 26 June 2021Important changes are underway for the United States (U.S.) power system in terms of decarbonization, new technological options, and shifting patterns of power consumption [1]
Energies 2021, 14, 4243 by 2030 to attain 100% no-carbon pollution electricity by 2035, electrify the federal fleet, and improve the grid [25,26,27]. These policies are aspirational until enshrined in enabling legislation, such as negotiated legislation or congressional budget reconciliation, among other options. These federal measures build on state and local policies including zero-emission credits which value the low carbon baseload premium that nuclear plants bring to regional power mixes [28] and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) which specify the percentage of electricity that is supplied by renewable energy
The importance of advanced resilience analysis is becoming increasingly evident as energy systems transition with low carbon aims while experiencing increased stress from severe weather and other disruptors
Summary
Important changes are underway for the United States (U.S.) power system in terms of decarbonization, new technological options, and shifting patterns of power consumption [1]. In 2020, a new annual record was set with 22 extreme weather events that cost a billion U.S dollars each. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations In response to these challenges, resilience is seen as increasingly prioritized in utility plans, yet there is no standard definition for resilience with energy systems in the United. When risks from cyber, physical, and electromagnetic attacks are factored in, the demands on electricity planning expand by orders of magnitude and complexity [10,11,12] With such conditions, utilities may invest billions in resilience. Recognizing the above complexities, the aim of this article is to assist utility decisionmakers, regulators, and others to more fully scope, evaluate, and monitor resilience of power systems in the context of decarbonization. It is worth noting the framework may be used for power systems with any fuel mix as well as other critical infrastructure, systems, and sectors
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