Boost Distribution System Restoration with Emergency Communication Vehicles Considering Cyber-Physical Interdependence

Abstract: Enhancing restoration capabilities of distribution systems is one of the main strategies for resilient power systems to cope with extreme events. However, most of the existing studies assume the communication infrastructures are intact for distribution automation, which is unrealistic. Motivated by the applications of the emergency communication vehicles (ECVs) in quickly setting up wireless communication networks after disasters, in this paper, we propose an integrated distribution system restoration (DSR) framework and optimization models, which can coordinate the repair crews, the distribution system (physical sectors), and the emergency communication (cyber sectors) to pick up unserved power loads as quickly as possible. Case studies validated the effectiveness of the proposed models and proved the benefit of considering ECVs and cyber-physical interdependencies in DSR.