Impact of Demand-Side Response on Community Resilience: Focusing on a Power Grid after Seismic Hazards

Abstract

The performance of a power grid after a disaster is associated with the grid’s ability to meet electricity demand under supply disruption. Prior studies primarily focused on reducing risk through reinforcement of supply-side reliability. However, during or after a disaster, electricity demand is likely to vary (e.g., electricity use may increase for disaster relief supply production or decrease because of governmental energy conservation policies). This study examined the impact of demand-side responses from industrial, commercial, and residential sectors on the performance of the power grid when supply shortages occur after earthquakes. Electricity supply and demand in the context of seismic hazards were modeled based on the system dynamics approach, and the model was tested with seismic hazards that occurred in South Korea in 2016. The simulation results showed that without supply growth after seismic hazards, the blackout decreased as much as 6.7% of daily electricity use in the case region when commercial and residential sectors give positive aid for participating in mandatory or voluntary demand control, or both. This finding demonstrates the critical role of demand-side management, which can regulate electricity consumption to improve community resilience. The outcomes of this research have the potential to support governmental policymaking to determine optimal values of generation capacity expansion, load shedding, and voluntary savings to prevent supply shortages and oversupply.