Modelling and Mitigating Wildfire Impacts on Power Grids
Yang W., Sparrow SN., Morstyn T., Wallom DCH.
This paper presents a prototype Wildfire Energy Model (WEM) to assess worst-case grid resilience scenarios during the 2019-2020 wildfire season in Victoria, Australia. Wildfire impacts are integrated into optimal power flow analysis using the high-resolution Fire Weather Index (FWI). Grid performance is assessed from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives, forming strategies to enhance resilience and manage wildfire risks through the sustainable deployment of wind distributed generation (DG). Additionally, a cost-benefit analysis is implemented to determine the breakeven Value of Lost Load (VoLL) that would justify investment in wind generation to reinforce grid resilience. Although the integration of DG incurs additional costs, the savings from reduced load curtailment significantly outweigh the investment, demonstrating the financial viability of DG in mitigating wildfire-related power outages.