Evaluating the feasibility to use microgrids as a resiliency resource

Regulated electricity utilities are required to provide safe and reliable service to their customers at a reasonable cost. To balance the objectives of reliable service and reasonable cost, utilities build and operate their systems to operate under typical historic conditions. When abnormal events such as major storms or disasters occur, it is not uncommon to have extensive interruptions in service to the end-use customers. Society is becoming less tolerant of extensive interruption in services, and it is not cost effective to harden the existing electrical distribution architecture to ensure 100% reliable power; more utilities are examining the deployment of microgrids as a part of the a coordinated resiliency plan. This paper evaluates the feasibility of microgrids as a resiliency resource under three scenarios: as a local resource, a community resource, and as a black start resource. A method of nomograms is proposed, based on dynamic simulations and evaluations of an operational microgrid, to allow operators to quickly evaluate the feasibility of these difference scenarios in operational conditions.