Resource Management in Electricity Networks

In liberalized electricity markets, the network operators are responsible for providing sufficient reliability of supply. At the same time, reductions of asset and operating costs are expected to allow for low grid usage fees and, consequently, for low energy prices. Both aspects are usually controlled by regulation authorities who determine thresholds for certain supply reliability indicators and acceptable grid usage fees. Thus, the goal of network operators is to maintain the required supply quality with minimal costs.

In this project, we investigate this conflict of objectives between reliability and cost for the electricity network operators. We analyze and model the processes in the operation and service of the network, particularly with respect to occurrence and remediation of failures and their dynamics. Focus of the investigations is the management of resources, i.e., how the availability of resources and responsiveness of the organization affect the supply reliability. Hence, the project is concerned with the interaction of two different dynamic processes around electricity networks: the physical process of electricity transmission and the socio-economic process of maintaining and operating the network.

An overview of one of our models is given in the editorial "Resource management for power grid operators" in the IFOR Mitteilungen, No. 65, February 2009.

Contact

• Dr. Michael Guarisco

Collaborators

• Dr. Marco Laumanns
• Dr. Rico Zenklusen

Former Collaborators

• Christian Balderer

Industrial Partner

• RWE Rhein-Ruhr Netzservice GmbH
  Here you find the press release (pdf) describing our joint project (in German).

Publications

• Guarisco M. (2011): "Strategic resource management for power grid operators", PhD thesis, Diss. ETH. No. 19761, ETH Zurich. (PDF)
• Guarisco M., Friedrich C., Balderer C., Laumanns M., Zdrallek M. (2009): "A grid operation model: Resource demand for an adequate incident management in high-, medium-, and low-voltage grids." International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 31(9):504-511. (DOI)
• Friedrich C., Guarisco M., Laumanns M., Zdrallek M. (2009): "A Model to Optimise the Organisation of Grid Operation." Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CIRED 2009), Prague, Czech Republic, June 8-11, 2009
• Balderer C., Guarisco M., Laumanns M., Zenklusen R. (2009): "Repair strategies for minimising the risk of cascading failures in electricity networks." International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 5(1/2):51-71. (DOI, URL)
• Guarisco M., Friedrich C., Laumanns M., Zdrallek M. (2008): "A Grid Operation Model: Resource Demand For An Adequate Quality Of Supply." Proceedings of the 16th Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC 2008), Glasgow, Scotland, 14-18 July, 2008 (PDF)
• Balderer C., Guarisco M., Laumanns M., Zenklusen R. (2007): "Repair strategies for minimizing the risk of cascading failures in electricity networks". European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS) 2007, Satellite Workshop: Critical Infrastructures as Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany, October 1-5, 2007 (PDF, URL, Video)
• Friedrich C., Guarisco M., Kueppers S., Schweer A. (2007): "Grid Operation in the Contrary Regulation Challenge of Cost Reduction and Supply Quality." Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CIRED 2007), Vienna, Austria, 21-24 May 2007 (PDF)

Student Projects

• A Subgradient Technique for Resource Management in Electricity Networks (Samuel Zürcher, master thesis, spring semester 2009)
• Solving an Average Cost per Stage Problem for Resource Management in Electricity Networks (Samuel Zürcher, term project, autumn semester 2008)
• Risk-Averse Resource Management in Electricity Networks (Maria Moschovitis, term project, spring semester 2008)
• Resource Management for Maintenance Work in Electricity Networks (Stefan Ravizza, bachelor thesis, summer semester 2007)