Strengthening Power System Resilience to Extreme Weather Events Through Grid Enhancing Technologies

Abstract

Climate change significantly increases risks to power systems, exacerbating issues such as aging infrastructure, evolving regulations, cybersecurity threats, and fluctuating demand. This paper focuses on the utilization of Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) to strengthen power system resilience in the face of extreme weather events. GETs are pivotal in optimizing energy distribution, enabling predictive maintenance, ensuring reliable electricity supply, facilitating renewable energy integration, and automating responses to power instabilities and outages. Drawing insights from resilience theory, the paper reviews recent grid resilience literature, highlighting increasing vulnerabilities due to severe weather events. It demonstrates how GETs are crucial in optimizing smart grid operations, thereby not only mitigating climate-related impacts but also promoting industrial transformation. Keywords: Climate change, power systems, grid enhancing technologies (GETs), power system resilience, extreme weather