Mobile Energy Storage Systems to Mitigate the Social Impacts of Long-Duration Power Outages

Natural disasters and severe weather events can cause long-duration power outages that result in extensive damages to society. Investments in power grid resilience can help to mitigate this risk. In particular, mobile energy storage systems (i.e., utility-scale batteries on wheels) have been proposed as a promising technology to enhance grid resilience and lessen the impact of power outages resulting from extreme weather. Furthermore, long-duration power outages have been shown to impact socially vulnerable groups disproportionately, and mobile energy storage presents an opportunity to aid in equitable power system restoration. This study presents a model of optimal mobile energy dispatch to enhance equitable decision-making during a long-duration power outage. A mixed-integer quadratically-constrained program is proposed that dispatches mobile energy storage to minimize the load not served, weighted by an index of social vulnerability, subject to unbalanced, three-phase power flow constraints. The proposed model is verified through a case study of a realistic distribution system in Greeley, Colorado. The results demonstrate how mobile energy storage dispatched based on a power-outage-specific social vulnerability index can increase restored power to the most vulnerable customers. This underlines how social vulnerability can inform equitable decision-making in the wake of a disaster.