Access Type

Open Access Embargo

Date of Award

January 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Caisheng Wang

Abstract

In recent years catastrophic events threatening the viability of power grids have become more significant. On the one hand, the situation in the US is of more interest mainly due to the aging infrastructure and increase in the number and intensity of extreme weather events, wind-induced in particular. On the other hand, statistics point out the distribution networks as the most vulnerable sector of a power system. Extreme events are High-Impact-Low-Probability (HILP), whereas power grids are designed to conform to legacy reliability criteria, which are associated with Low-Impact-High-Probability (LIHP) events. The global transition towards more clean and sustainable energy sources is pushing renewables to the forefront. Recent studies show although weather dependent distributed energy resources (DERs), such as photovoltaics (PVs), are non-dispatchable and intermittent, blackout intensities and extreme weather vulnerability are mitigated under high-penetration levels of such DERs. One of such DERs is bifacial PV systems, which has gained interest in recent years due to their advantageous properties versus conventional mono-facial ones. During a blackout a power grid may partition into islands where PV systems, which lack black-start capability, need to be accompanied by dispatchable sources such as energy storage units. Energy storage technologies are growing worldwide and facilitating market regulations are being ratified to ease their use. Battery energy storage systems (BESSs), Li-ion batteries in particular, possess attractive properties and are taking over other types of storage technologies. Therefore, in this research study the proper modeling of the aforesaid types of DERs (i.e., bifacial PVs and Li-ion BESSs) is discussed in detail and then are used in a resiliency enhancing two-stage stochastic MILP model to provide strategic response to likely outages caused by extreme wind events. Grid topology, grid permissible bounds, AC power flow equations, resource availability, transfer capacities, and DERs’ practical limitations will be among the model constraints while the objective is to minimize capital investment of DERs and load curtailment costs over a set of outage scenarios.

Available for download on Friday, December 18, 2026

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