Microgrids for power system resilience enhancement

Power system resilience is defined as the ability of power grids to anticipate, withstand, adapt and recover from high-impact low-probability (HILP) events. There are both long-term and short-term measures that system operators can employ for resilience reinforcement. Longer-term measures include infrastructure hardening and resilient planning, while short-term operational measures are applied in the pre-event, during-event and post-event phases. Microgrids (MGs) can effectively enhance resilience for both transmission and distribution systems, due to their ability to operate in a controlled, coordinated way, when connected to the main power grid and in islanded mode. In this paper, MG-based strategies for resilience enhancement are presented, including MG-based resilient planning and MG-based operational measures, consisting of preventive MG scheduling and emergency measures and MG-based system restoration. Classification of literature is made by considering whether the transmission system, distribution system or individual MG resilience is targeted. The way uncertainties are handled by various methods is also outlined. Finally, challenges and future research requirements for improving MG-based power system resilience are highlighted.