Towards Resilient and Sustainable Electricity Grids Under Climate Extremes

Since the early 21st century, over 80% of major U.S. blackouts have been weather-related. Intensifying extreme events such as hurricanes, heatwaves, and wildfires, have nearly doubled weather-related outages in the past decade compared to the first decade of the century. Meanwhile, our energy sector, especially the electric power system, is becoming more exposed to the environment due to the large-scale integration of intermittent renewable energy such as solar and wind.

Considering this increasingly coupled climate-energy challenge, in this seminar, I discuss our recent research advancements in modeling, optimization, and socio-technical analysis of electricity grids towards climate resilience. Specifically, I cover topics including: (1) Grid modeling under extremes: quantifying cascading power outages with renewable integration under evolving hazards; (2) Grid optimization: enhancing grid resilience through coordinating transmission and distribution networks with large-scale distributed renewable integration; and (3) Social vulnerability: understanding community-level impacts and exploring opportunities for sustainability through microgrids. These topics will be illustrated through case studies of real-world power grids in Puerto Rico and NYC, highlighting the potential of resilience-oriented strategies to inform energy system planning and operation from grid operators to local communities.

Speaker: Luo Xu, Princeton University