Towards understanding the robustness of energy distribution networks based on macroscopic and microscopic evaluations

Jiming Liu and Benyun Shi

Energy Policy, 2012, vol. 49, issue C, 318-327

Abstract: Supply disruptions on one node of a distribution network may spread to other nodes, and potentially bring various social and economic impacts. To understand the performance of a distribution network in the face of supply disruptions, it would be helpful for policy makers to quantitatively evaluate the robustness of the network, i.e., its ability of maintaining a supply–demand balance on individual nodes. In this paper, we first define a notion of network entropy to macroscopically characterize distribution robustness with respect to the dynamics of energy flows. Further, we look into how microscopic evaluation based on a failure spreading model helps us determine the extent to which disruptions on one node may affect the others. We take the natural gas distribution network in the USA as an example to demonstrate the introduced concepts and methods. Specifically, the proposed macroscopic and microscopic evaluations provide us a means of precisely identifying transmission bottlenecks in the U.S. interstate pipeline network, ranking the effects of supply disruptions on individual nodes, and planning geographically advantageous locations for natural gas storage. These findings can offer policy makers, planners, and network managers with further insights into emergency planning as well as possible design improvement.

Keywords: Energy distribution network; Distribution robustness; Mitigation strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512005472
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:318-327

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.037

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().