Resilience Assessment in Ecuadorian Power Network Against Seismic Events

Abstract

The unleashing of a series of natural catastrophic events (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, hurricanes, etc.), have made power systems more vulnerable to damage to their components, thus affecting their ability to energy supply. In this context, the current challenge of electrical systems is focused on simulating and quantifying the impact of various catastrophic events, recognizing their high complexity and stochastic occurrence. The present work proposes a methodology to evaluate the seismic impact in a real electric network, using Monte Carlo simulations to determine the vulnerability of the system components, incorporating a DC-OPF model with the aim of obtaining the optimal active power flows and quantifying the energy not supplied (ENS) of the system. The proposed methodology is applied in the National Interconnected System of Ecuador to obtain indexes and metrics to evaluate the system's resilience. The simulation results show the vulnerability of the system and quantify the degradation of the resilience in terms of operation and infrastructure depending on the magnitude and location of the seismic events.