Enhancing Power Grid Resilience Against Ice Storms: State-of-the-Art, Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities

Abstract

Ice storms have significantly impacted power systems in many ways over the past decades, causing serious damage to power generation, transmission, and distribution assets. Such storms have led to massive and extended power blackouts that have disrupted the lives of many communities, thus raising concerns from several electricity sector stakeholders. This paper aims to provide power grid operators, engineers, researchers, and regulators a comprehensive overview and comparison of the existing short- and long-term planning and operational methods to enhance the resilience of power grids against ice storms. Moreover, the paper also discusses several challenges, needs, and opportunities for future research and development, with a special focus on planning and operation mechanisms for power transmission and distribution network operators.