How resilient is a power system? An open-source tool integrating GIS and Optimal Power Flow for resilience assessment

Abstract

The concept of resilience has gained prominence across diverse fields and has recently emerged as a crucial concept in power systems, complementing traditional notions of reliability, robustness, and security. Despite this, standardized approaches to integrating resilience into power system planning remain limited. This study proposes a novel framework that combines Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with AC and DC Optimal Power Flow (OPF) analysis to quantify power system resilience. A new resilience index is introduced, accounting for external hazards, system vulnerabilities, and inherent strengths. Recognizing resilience as a multi-layered challenge that requires comprehensive data management, the methodology utilizes GIS to efficiently integrate both qualitative and quantitative spatial and system data, enabling robust analysis even in data-sparse or heterogeneous environments. The methodology is implemented as an open-source tool and applied to a rural power network in Spain, illustrating how different mitigation strategies affect resilience outcomes. In the demonstrated case study, the proposed mitigation strategies reduced the system’s overall power at risk by nearly 90%. The tool constitutes a valuable resource for resilience-oriented power system planning and is freely available at [1].