Resilience Enhancement of an Urban Microgrid during Off-Grid Mode Operation Using Critical Load Indicators

Microgrids (MGs) can be used as a solution to ensure resilience against power supply failures in electricity grids caused by extreme weather conditions, unavailability of generation capacities, and problems with transmission components. The literature is rich in research focusing on strengthening the planning of microgrids based on overall load demand. In this study, a critical load demand indicator will be calculated and used to identify optimum operation strategies of microgrids in a power failure mode. An urban microgrid with a large educational building is selected for the case study. Operation dispatch scenarios are developed to reinforce the system’s resiliency in severe conditions. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) approach is employed to identify global optimum dispatch solutions based on a next 48 h plan for different seasons to formulate a whole-year operational model. The results show that the loss of power supply probability (LPSP), as an indicator of resiliency, could be lowered to near zero while minimizing operational cost.