Improving the resilience of integrated electricity and natural gas networks by managing repair crews and utilizing network reconfiguration

One of the significant challenges facing societies is natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms, and other weather phenomena that occur suddenly and cause substantial damage to the infrastructure of integrated electricity and natural gas (IENG) networks. Although several measures have been taken to prevent and minimize damage, with the integration of energy networks, there is still a need for a framework for coordinated recovery, taking into account the operating conditions of each network to deal with disasters. In this regard, this paper presents an efficient method for planning in IENG systems, including the analysis and simulation of possible disasters and their impact. Also, to improve resilience, the role of coordination of each team in post-disaster recovery is examined, and this coordination means practical cooperation between the teams of both networks. Because the connection of different energy networks makes the recovery and operation process more complicated, and if each network is looked at individually, the amount of damage will increase. For this purpose, the issue of dispatching repair teams for IENG systems, along with the optimal use of the possibility of reconfiguration for the electricity network (EN) and also for the gas network (GN), which is often not considered, to return to the pre-incident working state, has been studied. This paper employs a 69-bus IEEE distribution network and a 15-node linear GN that are interconnected and affect each other to simulate the coordinated and uncoordinated modes of repair teams. This effect is modeled through the presence of electric compressors and gas-fired generating units. In addition, the network has mobile generation resources, a photovoltaic system, manual switches (MS) and remote switches (RS), and gas flow interrupters. Case studies show that the coordinated mode has a significant effect on reducing the cost and time of recovery of both networks, such that the cost indicator is reduced by 14% compared to the uncoordinated mode. The effect of switches and valves has also been studied, which shows that using the reconfiguration capacity of both networks and the targeted use of switches in repair priorities is effective and leads to the acceleration of recovery and repair operations.