TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION TECHNOLOGY
FUTURE FORECAST
Frédéric Godemel reveals how power systems can resist extreme weather
T
he effects of the extreme heatwaves and wildfires hitting continental Europe, the UK, China and parts of the US in 2022 were hard to
ignore. Record temperatures in the UK, for example, topped 40°C in July, with hot weather and drought conditions leading to scorched landscapes, wildfires and health warnings. Meanwhile, a surge in demand for power and reported ‘bottleneck’ on the grid saw National Grid’s Electricity System Operator paying 5,000% the usual price of electricity per megawatt hour to avoid a power outage in London. With extreme weather increasing due to global warming, nations cannot hope to pay their way out of potential disasters forever. Resilient energy systems are vital to keep serving customers whatever storm may come. Here’s how to increase resilience against extreme weather.
WHY DOES THIS ISSUE MATTER? Extreme weather is becoming more frequent – and its effects are getting worse.
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As our world changes in the face of global warming, an increasing multitude of extreme weather patterns now affects regions that historically did not face such natural events. Tis places an economic and social strain on larger and larger swathes of the global population. Te increase in natural disasters and severe weather seen globally demands a global change in how we distribute our power to increase resilience and limit the impact on communities. Traditional energy distribution relies on
networks connected by a number of nodes, overhead lines or underground cables. If one of those fails, the energy cannot be transmitted – that is, unless it is directed towards another appropriate route. When this assignment of a new route is done manually, it lacks efficiency. When multiple elements are broken or lost due to powerful, localised extreme weather events, the rerouting process is complex and time-consuming. It is, therefore, essential that power systems worldwide continue to be updated
to benefit from systemic resilience in the event of loss of centralised power due to weather events. Te aims are as follows: predict and prepare for the expected impact, reduce the time to locate and isolate the faults, quickly define reconfigurations, enable progressive re- energisation of the system, and optimise mobilisation of resources for repair and full recovery of the normal situation. Te solution for all these aims starts with making grids smarter.
WHAT DOES A SMARTER GRID LOOK LIKE? Grid modernisation is seeing changes that could make grids far more resilient to extreme weather. Tis means the technology in the grid can predict the location of impact, reroute the energy and mobilise repair resources. Tis is achieved through smarter, digital grids, that can start the response through engaging their outage management system (OMS) modules – these can be part of
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