Impact of Grid Partitioning Into Microgrids on System's Criticality

The increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters pose significant challenges to the resilience of traditional power grids. This paper investigates the impact of partitioning the grid into microgrids as a strategy to enhance overall resilience. The ability of microgrids to disconnect from the main grid and operate autonomously offer a promising solution to improve system robustness and resilience. Through a comprehensive analysis, we examine the impact of partitioning existing grid into different number of zonal microgrids. Using N-1 contingency criteria, DER integration for resilience enhancement on a real-world case study, we assess the impact of natural disasters before and after an existing network is partitioned into different number of zonal microgrids. An existing power distribution network is partitioned in four(4), eight (8) and twelve (12) microgrids and a comprehensive assessment is performed to determine the relationship between the number of partitions and resilience enhancement.