A comprehensive metric for resilience evaluation in electrical distribution systems under extreme conditions

Due to the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events and cyber threats in electrical distribution systems (EDS), it is of paramount importance that power system planning and operations develop and enhance the system’s resilience. Several researchers have proposed various resilience metrics, but a comprehensive metric is still necessary that integrates multiple dimensions of resilience, such as robustness, adaptability, and recovery, which are specific to the characteristics of EDS. This paper proposes a novel framework for resilience evaluation with a holistic metric that takes into consideration both the topological constructs from complex network parameters and the electrical service requirements. The proposed metric follows the resilience analysis process, a risk-based decision-making technique that contains six steps for assessing system performance. The resilience evaluation facilitates a quantitative analysis that evaluates the impact of control decisions, providing a proactive and resilient operation of distribution systems. A systematic approach for the enhancement of resilience in EDS is proposed by efficiently integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) and automated switches, resulting in high resilience scores above 90%. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed methodology, the algorithm is applied to a modified IEEE 123 node test feeder and tested for various cases of DER integration and additional switches, increasing the system resilience from 56% to 93%. The proposed framework effectively selects the most resilient network configuration under an extreme event for initial service restoration, increasing the resilience of the system from 2% to 23% depending on the extent of damage to the infrastructure and availability of resources. This quantifiable metric proves to be a valuable tool for resilience-based planning and operation.