A Parallel Fast-Track Service Restoration Strategy Relying on Sectionalized Interdependent Power-Gas Distribution Systems

In the distribution networks, catastrophic events especially those caused by natural disasters can result in extensive damage that ordinarily needs a wide range of components to be repaired for keeping the lights on. Since the recovery of system is not technically feasible before making compulsory repairs, the predictive scheduling of available repair crews and black start resources not only minimizes the customer downtime but also speeds up the restoration process. To do so, this article proposes a novel three-stage buildup restoration planning strategy to combine and coordinate repair crew dispatch problem for the interdependent power and natural gas systems with the primary objective of resiliency enhancement. In the proposed model, the system is sectionalized into autonomous subsystems (i.e., microgrid) with multiple energy resources, and then concurrently restored in parallel considering cold load pick-up conditions. Besides, topology refurbishment and intentional microgrid islanding along with energy storages are applied as remedial actions to further improve the resilience of interdependent systems while unpredicted uncertainties are addressed through stochastic/information gap decision theory (IGDT) method. The theoretical and practical implications of the proposed framework push the research frontier of distribution restoration schemes, while its flexibility and generality support application to various extreme weather incidents.