Assessment of the resilience of the electrical distribution grid: e-distribuzione approach

Abstract

Extreme meteorological events, such as snowstorms, windstorms, floods and heat waves, have a high impact on the operation of electrical distribution and transmission grids, with disruptive effects affecting a huge number of customers. Moreover, the climate change due to global warming implies higher frequency of these critical events, also in unusual areas. This context pushed the Italian Regulatory Authority to solicit distribution and transmission system operators to plan grid resiliency improvements. To this purpose, e-distribuzione developed differentiated methodologies, described in this paper, in order to evaluate the resilience of its electrical grid versus extreme snowstorms, windstorms, tree fall and heat waves.