Distribution system resilience improvement against hurricanes: optimal line hardening according to reconfiguration potentials

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters related to global warming. Large‐scale blackouts caused by natural disasters demonstrate the extreme vulnerability of power systems to these devastations. Resilience planning is the key to preparing power systems for natural disasters by enhancing the vital infrastructure's robustness. This paper proposes a new resilience improvement framework based on resiliency assessment and optimal hardening to improve the distribution system's resiliency against hurricanes. The main goal is to find the optimal distribution system line hardening solution according to reconfiguration potentials after the hurricane to minimize the distribution system cost of energy not supplied. Fragility curves and Monte Carlo simulations are used for the distribution system resilience assessment. Poles and conductors are vulnerable components of distribution system lines; therefore, two hardening strategies have been outlined using measures like replacing old poles with new poles, upgrading pole classes, and vegetation management. This method is modelled as an optimization program considering budget limitations and load priorities and implemented by a genetic algorithm on the IEEE 33‐bus standard network. The results show that optimal line hardening according to network reconfiguration potentials significantly increased the distribution system's resilience.