Enhancing the Resiliency of a Renewable Energy Community under HILP Events by Flexible Energy Resources

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are increasingly recognized for their pivotal role in enhancing the resilience of power systems by leveraging localized green energy resources and innovative technologies to adapt and respond to diverse operational challenges. This paper introduces a new flexibility-based resiliency index for RECs, particularly focusing on high-impact low-probability (HILP) events such as hurricanes. It examines how the strategic integration of flexible energy resources, such as electric vehicles (EVs) in parking lots, can mitigate the impacts of these disruptive events on power generation failure rates and system recovery timelines. Additionally, this study explores the potential of integrating renewable resources with EVs to serve as reliable backup during grid failures. The findings highlight that although the performance and resiliency of the REC initially decrease to 0.36 and 0.08 respectively after hurricanes, they notably improve to 1 and 0.78, respectively, by employing the proposed framework and utilizing flexible energy resources. This underscores the effectiveness of the flexibility-based resiliency index in guiding RECs through crisis management and recovery processes, demonstrating its significant potential in strengthening community resilience against severe disruptions.