Institutional Solutions to Enhance Power Sector Resilience

A balanced approach that includes both institutional and technical solutions is necessary to achieve this goal. Institutional solutions focus on building human capacity, improving access to data, enhancing operational intelligence, engaging stakeholders, developing a culture of resilience, and implementing other relevant institutional operational processes. Control center operators and power sector personnel are critical to effectively managing any major power system event. Their knowledge, skills, and training, in addition to the tools available to them, are essential for a successful response. A recent global sector survey identified low awareness of threat exposure and risk management standards, as well as weak institutional capacity, as dominant barriers to increased power sector resilience. To address these concerns, it is essential to prioritize the design of systems and institutional processes, as well as the sharing and linking of relevant data, to improve resilience. Institutional solutions are often the most cost-effective option and should be considered in any holistic resilience planning activity. Building knowledge and capacity of personnel is a key institutional solution to enhance power sector resilience. Power system operators are responsible for addressing outcomes of every major event that impacts the power system. To ensure a resilient power system, personnel need to know what to do prior to, during, and following the possible exposure of a vulnerability. This requires education and training to support well-informed decisions based on best practices and high-quality, robust data. Knowledge and capacity-building of power system operators can build off of existing plans for extreme events, continuity of operations plans, or similar response plans. Response plans can ensure that responsibilities are clearly defined and that personnel can complete their tasks given any of a wide array of contingencies. This requires training, not only for the normal operating conditions of a power system, but also training with an emphasis on what to do during operational power system stages of alert, emergency, extreme conditions, and restoration. Improving access to weather and climate data is also a critical institutional solution to enhance power sector resilience. Many risks to the power sector are weather and climate driven, and the use of predictive weather and climate models can help power system operators anticipate and prepare for potential disruptions. For example, Enedis, a distribution network of Électricité de France, uses a weather monitoring and modeling tool called Geriko to evaluate potential short-term weather-related risks to the distribution system. With advance warning, Enedis was able to put personnel on standby for a potential event and restore service within 24 hours to 95% of the 700,000 customers who lost power following the storm. Statkraft, a hydropower generation company in Norway, also relies on historical data and global climate models to forecast future precipitation and understand the potential effects of climate change on their operations. Statkraft collaborates with the Norwegian meteorological institute to understand the potential effects of climate change and works with the Norwegian Water Authority to develop methodologies that help forecast changes in temperature and precipitation. These methodologies and improved climate data have helped Statkraft develop a better understanding of potential reservoir inflow patterns and hydropower resource availability. In conclusion, institutional solutions are essential to enhance power sector resilience. Building knowledge and capacity of personnel, improving access to weather and climate data, and enhancing operational intelligence are critical institutional solutions that can help power system operators anticipate, prepare for, and respond quickly and appropriately to the impacts of power system threats.