Post-earthquake damage evaluation system at points of interest in Mexico applied to the power plants of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad

Abstract

A post-earthquake damage evaluation system is presented. The system uses an algorithm that uses various internet sources such as Web Sites of the Servicio Sismológico Nacional (SSN), United States Geological Survey's (USGS) and Twitter of SSN (@SSNMexico). The system bases the estimation of damage using the seismic region where the point of interest is located in addition to its building quality. The Power Plants of CFE were taken as points of interest. There are 45 seismic regions in Mexico which were analyzed in order to pool those with similar characteristics resulting 3 pooled seismic regions: Cortex, Intermediate Depth and Subduction. In order to estimate the damage caused by an earthquake, a calculation of the Site Seismic Energy [Energía Sísmica de Sitio (ESS)] and the Corresponding Mitigation Laws is performed based in the location of the epicentre and its distance from the points of interest (the power plants). If the earthquake magnitude was equal or greater than 5°, the seismic report is sent by e-mail; to avoid the system sending duplicate reports, a between-events time window of one minute is considered with the same magnitude reported from different sources. If an event that caused some damage to the power plants is reported, a special mail is sent to the affected power plants responsible showing them the earthquake general information and a table of effects only with the power plant at their charge and the map with the epicenter marker. The aim is to increase the accuracy of the damage estimation by the creation of the ESS Tables for more specific entities (eg. Powerhouse, Laboratory, Offices, etc.). Currently, when potential damages are reported at the Power Plants, it is not exactly know at which area the damage could occur, so it is used to send engineers of different specialties for analysis and damage repair. The system is implemented at the Subdirección de Generación (SDG) of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) of Mexico.