A holistic approach to power infrastructure resilience
The influencing factors on modern power systems are numerous, and they are constantly changing. That’s why it takes an integrated, intelligent, and comprehensive concept to protect today’s power systems. Such a concept needs to cover the entire power system on all voltage levels and to anticipate all possible risks. A main constituent of power system protection is to implement resilience. A more resilient power infrastructure has a higher ability to withstand disruptive events, reduce their impact, and speed up recovery.
Resilience with and despite digitalization
In the wake of digitalization, power systems have evolved from relatively self-contained, straightforward networks to complex intelligent infrastructures that are more prone to incidents of natural and human origin across multiple levels.
Addressing the potential risks associated with this inescapable process as well as other developments, such as climate change, the rise of distributed power systems, and a sharp increase in cases of vandalism in some countries, necessitate that resilience be an integral part of all future power system operation, optimization, and planning.
Proactive, holistic power system protection
The resilience of a power infrastructure stands or falls with the weakest system component. It is crucial to identify all possible disruptive factors, anticipate incidents, and proactively secure the entire system. That’s why Siemens has developed a unique, holistic, three-dimensional approach.
Safety concerns any power system as a whole
Power system operators have always taken extensive measures against system faults and system failures. But there are new threats that need to be addressed.
The vulnerability to cyber threats, for instance, is increasing in the wake of digitalization and with the growing number of interconnections. Extreme weather conditions due to climate change have quadrupled over the past 30 years and have become a severe threat to power systems in several parts of the world. The problem of vandalism is becoming steadily worse. The number of power outages caused by vandalism has reached alarming levels in several supply areas. In view of such new challenges, resilience is increasingly required to ensure a reliable supply of power.
It’s a law of nature that you can’t avoid failures. The trick is to incorporate enough fault tolerance into a system and to make it learn from past failures to become even more stable. That’s the essence of resilience.Michael Schwan, Head of Power System Consulting, Siemens PTI
Standing strong against any threat
The numerous aspects of power infrastructure resilience have one thing in common: They are based on the ability to anticipate, react, adapt, and recover quickly thanks to fast, targeted, and effective action on the physical as well as on the digital and the systemic side.
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Get in touch with the resilience experts
Power infrastructure resilience starts with the appropriate mindset, and there’s no off-the-shelf solution. But the Siemens experts will be glad to analyze your individual starting point, your objectives, and possible ways to a more resilient power system.
