Modeling and Quantification of Power System Resilience to Natural Hazards: A Case of Landslide

Power systems are stretched across thousands of miles of diverse territories, often in remote locations, to generate and transfer the energy to geographically dispersed customers. The system is therefore subjected to a wide range of natural hazards which could potentially damage critical system components and cause interruption of electricity supply in some areas. To improve system resilience against natural hazards, management frameworks are required to identify hazardous areas and prioritize reinforcement activities in order to take the most out of the limited resources.

Landslide is a natural disaster that involves the breakup and downhill flow of rock, mud, water, and anything caught in the path. It is a phenomenon frequently occurred in some parts of the world that could result in the failure of power transmission networks. Consequently, in this paper, a novel approach has been proposed that quantifies the landslide hazard, its damage to power system components, and the impacts on the overall system performance to prioritize reinforcement activities and mitigate the landslide vulnerability. The proposed approach is applied to a real power system and the obtained results are discussed in detail.