Modeling stakeholder interactions for post-disaster electric power restoration: A multi-agent and game-theoretic approach

Efficient post-disaster electric power restoration, under resource constraints, is essential for economic continuity and recovery. While existing studies emphasize the technical feasibility of power restoration, they frequently overlook how households' responses and utility companies' strategic priorities either reinforce or obstruct utility-led restoration efforts. To this end, this study presents a multi-agent simulation approach that integrates hazard modeling, grid fragility, household-level tolerance regarding outages, and a stochastic game-theoretic decision process to model stakeholder interactions and the effects on the efficiency of utility-led electric power restoration. The approach evaluates utilities' daily decisions in allocating labor resources for repair and recovery between economic and residential needs, alongside households' adaptation and feedback, which, in turn, affect the consumption and workforce availability. The approach is validated with field data collected from Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas in 2017. The results show that household decision-making can act as a powerful feedback mechanism, shaping restoration trajectories and the ultimate outcomes of economic recovery. Specifically, a flexible “conditional” cooperation model, where households adjust their behaviors based on the utility's actions, proved most effective in the process of electric power restoration process. Paired with residential-first repair, the model yields a 65.6 % power restoration and 25.9 % economic recovery within 30 days. In contrast, a business-focused strategy, which prioritize electric restoration in industrial sectors, is often combined with low household cooperation and yields significantly worse outcomes, with only 31.8 % power restoration and 7.2 % economic recovery. Our results consistently show that prioritizing residential areas is optimal for both power restoration and long-term economic recovery. This socio-technical framework offers policymakers, utility managers, and community stakeholders a robust and replicable tool to anticipate the cascading consequences of their decisions, enhancing the energy system resilience and effectiveness in disaster recovery strategies.