This proposal explores new concepts for the damage assessment, control, and restoration of the electric power grid following catastrophic disturbances. These disturbances would include:
1. Natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, ice storms, wind storms, and large electrical impacts like short circuits, and failure of major components. 2. Man-made disasters, such as terrorist attacks, and human errors.
The damage assessment consists of determining the severity based on the following criteria: a) Degree of damage, b) Degree of danger, and c) Extent of hazard. This type of analysis will require input from a well-established information and sensing system. The complexity of the problem is further increased because of the large geographical expanse of the Electric Power Transportation system. The use of a wide array of communication technologies including GPS, Microwave Networks, Internet, low earth orbit satellites, and other communication networks will be examined as a part of the information. Infrastructure.
Issues related to the scheduling and processing of real time information will also be carefully examined. Key requirements for the computing and communication infracture to support real time supervisory control and data acquisition of large electric power grids are identified. Information and computing architectures to meet these requirements will be proposed.
Various control strategies to prevent and minimize the extent of the dislocation of the electric network will be compared. Concepts of graceful degradation as applied to the electric power grid will be proposed. This aspect of the work would also involve corrective strategies to facilitate fast restoration. Newer configurations for the electric power distribution networks and their control and protection equipment so that the network responds to emergencies in a more controlled manner will also be explored.
The final step in the investigation will deal with approaches for the restoration of the system following catastrophic disturbances. This is one of the least analyzed aspects of large power grids. It is a highly complex undertaking and involves several issues that relate to automatic restoration as will as manual switching that involves a variety of manpower issues.
It is important to note that the power delivery network is overlayed with several hierarchical information and control networks that provide various functions dealing with supervisory control data acquisition, and transaction information in the new deregulated electric utility environment. The roles of each network layer will also be carefully identified.
