Internal Combustion Engine as a New Source for Enhancing Distribution System Resilience

Enhancing distribution system resilience is a new challenge for researchers. Supplying distribution loads, especially the residential customers and high-priority loads after disasters, is vital for this purpose. In this paper, the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are firstly introduced as valuable backup energy sources in the aftermath of disasters and the use of this technology is explained. Then, the improvement of distribution system resilience is investigated through supplying smart residential customers and injecting extra power to the main grid. In this method, it is assumed that the infrastructure of distribution system is partially damaged (common cases) and it can be restored in less than one day. The extra power of residential customer can be delivered to other loads. A novel formulation for increasing the injected power of the smart home to the main grid using ICE vehicles is proposed. Moreover, the maximum backup duration in case of extensive damages in the distribution system is calculated for some commercial ICE vehicles. In this case, the smart home cannot deliver extra energy to the main grid because of its survivability. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for increasing backup power during power outages. It is also shown that ICE vehicles can supply residential customers for a reasonable amount of time during a power outage.