100% Carbon-Free Energy System

The recent blackouts in Texas and California have revealed certain vulnerabilities within U.S. energy infrastructure which are not well understood. In particular: (1) a massive winter storm with frigid temperatures caused 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses to lose power for up to 4 days in February 2021; and (2) an extreme heat wave disrupted the power supply to approximately 2 million customers in California in August 2020. These devastating blackouts require action from policy makers, legislators, engineers, and scientists to design and operate more resilient and reliable U.S. energy systems. This seminar will discuss the topic from four aspects: (1) the Texas and California blackouts will be reviewed; (2) generation resource adequacy methodologies will be described and how these resource adequacy programs failed to prevent the blackouts will be analyzed; (3) outage management of distribution systems with smart meters will be discussed; and (4) restoration strategies for bulk power systems in blackouts will be presented. Technology solutions will be discussed to help keep the lights on during the transition to a 100% carbon-free energy system.