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ENERGIX-Stort program energi

Resilient and Probabilistic reliability management of the transmission grid

Alternative title: Resilient og probabilistisk håndtering av pålitelighet i transmisjonsnettet

Awarded: NOK 14.4 mill.

Challenges related to increasing integration of variable renewable generation and increasing exchange of power between countries have become apparent through the high electricity prices and large price differences experienced in Norway and Europe lately. This calls for investigating a probabilistic approach to long-term grid planning and operation. Using such an approach the transfer capacities can be increased in many cases, balancing security of supply and costs. The optimal solution may in many cases be to rely more on actions that can be taken during grid operation rather than investing in grid capacity. The primary objective of the project is to develop methodology for the rapid identification of operational strategies that ensures transmission grid resilience. It thus seeks to address outstanding knowledge gaps related to the operational strategies that are a precondition for more probabilistic and resilient reliability management of the transmission grid. It focuses on the rapid identification of near-optimal preventive actions by developing and critically evaluating novel and computationally efficient approximate models for grid operation. Furthermore, the project is advancing the research front in the direction of accounting more accurately for restoration time and restorative actions within a broader probabilistic reliability management framework. The expected results of the project include methods, models and prototype tools that can be implemented in probabilistic reliability assessments tools to improve their accuracy and computational efficiency. The project is currently working on several complementary tasks: Based on the initial studies work has proceeded on descriptions of how to compare and balance preventive, corrective and restorative measures. The choice of which cost elements to include in a comparison and balancing between different measures is central, and we have developed a method and model to choose near-optimal operational strategy for transmission corridors. The method and model have been tested for different operational strategies on a realistic grid and results so far indicate that he model is able to quantify the different cost elements of interest. This provides a valuable insight far beyond identifying an optimal value, thus this may be important decision support for the system operator. Several aspects need to be further pursued, among others the calculation time need to be reduced before the method can be applied to real (large) systems. As a part of the work with reducing the calculation time, artificial intelligence-based analysis models have been established. Results so far indicate that such techniques may provide an important contribution to reduce calculation time. This by identifying the cases where further, more detailed, and thus time demanding, analyses are not required. A PhD candidate was employed from August 2021, working with defined problems associated with the balancing of preventive and corrective measures.

The transmission grid is facing challenges due to increasing integration of variable renewable generation and increasing exchange of power between countries. In the traditional (deterministic) approach to reliability management, grid operators often has to resort to grid development solutions to maintain an acceptable level of reliability. However, such solutions may be exceedingly costly and not necessarily socio-economic efficient. Using a probabilistic approach to long-term grid planning, balancing reliability and costs, the socio-economic optimal solution may be to rely more on actions that can be taken during grid operation: preventive actions to better absorb disruptive events, corrective actions to better adapt to disruptive events, and restorative actions to rapidly recover from disruptive events and restore power supply to end-users. These are all capabilities associated with resilient grid operation. The primary objective of the project is to develop methodology for the rapid identification of operational strategies including preventive, corrective and restorative actions that ensures transmission grid resilience. It thus seeks to address outstanding knowledge gaps related to the operational strategies that are a precondition for more probabilistic and resilient reliability management of the transmission grid. It will focus on the rapid identification of near-optimal preventive actions by developing and critically evaluating novel and computationally efficient approximate models (proxy models) for grid operation. Furthermore, the project will also advance the research front in the direction of accounting more accurately for restoration time and restorative actions within a broader probabilistic reliability management framework. The expected results of the project include methods, models and prototype tools that can be implemented in probabilistic reliability assessments tools to improve their accuracy and computational efficiency.

Funding scheme:

ENERGIX-Stort program energi