Energy Storage Planning for Enhanced Resilience of Power Distribution Networks Against Earthquakes

Energy infrastructures are perceived continuously vulnerable to a range of high-impact low-probability (HILP) incidents-e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, etc.- the resilience to which is highly on demand. Specifically suited to battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions, this paper presents a new resilience-driven framework for hardening power distribution systems against earthquakes. The concept of fragility curve is applied to characterize an earthquake hazard, assess its impact on power distribution systems, and estimate the unavailability of the network elements when exposed to extreme earthquakes. A new metric is defined to quantify the network resilience taking into account the uncertain nature of such HILP events. A linear programming optimization problem is formulated to determine the capacity and location of the BESSs for enhanced resilience against earthquakes. Efficacy of the proposed framework is numerically analyzed and verified through application to a real-world distribution power grid.