Review on Causes of Power Outages and Their Occurrence: Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

For power plant networks in developing countries like Iraq, balancing electricity demand and generation continues to be a major challenge. Energy management (EM) in either demand-side (DS) or generation-side (GS) strategies, which is frequently utilized in Iraq due to a lack of adequate power generation, has a small impact on the power balancing mechanism. Most previous studies in similar countries discussed only the application of DS strategies. The purpose of this paper is to contrast and review various energy management methodologies being used in developing nations facing power outages, to be able to recommend suitable ones according to the country’s situation. To assess potential EM-based solutions to improve the total energy efficiency of the Iraqi electrical community, a thorough and methodical analysis was carried out. The main objective of this review paper is to discuss the causes of power outages and the energy management strategies addressed here as methods to mitigate or avoid power outages. Unlike existing reviews that concentrated on demand-side energy management, this study specifically focuses on power outage causes in developing countries like Iraq rather than all management strategies. It also introduces the consequences of power outages including analysis of distribution power losses, financial loss from power blackouts, and power blackouts in firms in a typical month. Therefore, it presents readers with state-of-the-art strategies and recommends a generation-based EM strategy to mitigate such issues.