Vancouver Climate Adaptation Strategy

This report is intended to be used internally by the City to guide climate adaptation policies in conjunction with the Climate Action Plan (see right). Key elements of this report include an analysis of the City’s climate change risks and populations most vulnerable to climate change, a review of best practices from other cities, insights from community engagement, and recommended strategies for supporting climate adaptation

The Electromagnetic Threat to the US: Resilience Strategy Recommendations

The article of record as published may be located at https://doi.org/10.18278/jcip.3.2.10https://www.jcip1.org/the-electromagnetic-threat-to-the-us-recommendations-for-resilience-strategies.htmlThis work is based on a master’s thesis completed by the lead author: Samuel Averitt, “The Electromagnetic Threat To The United States: Recommendations For Consequence Management” (Monterey, CA, Naval Postgraduate School, 2021), https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/68695This article analyzes the threat of both electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) to various federal agencies and the civilian population of the United States. EMP/GMD events are classified as low-probability/high-impact events that have potential for catastrophic consequences to all levels of government as well as the country's civilian population. By reviewing current literature and conducting two thought experiments, we determined that specific critical infrastructure sectors and modern society are at substantial risk from the effects of these events. Some of the most serious consequences of a large-scale EMP/GMD include longterm power loss to large geographic regions, loss of modern medical services, and severe communication blackouts that could make recovery from these events extremely difficult. In an attempt to counteract and mitigate the risks of EMP/GMD events, resilience engineering concepts prescribe several recommendations that could be utilized by policymakers to mitigate the effects of EMP or GMD. Some of the recommendations include utilizing hardened micro-grid systems, fast tracking available black start options, and various changes to government agency organizations that would provide additional resilience and recovery to American critical infrastructure systems in the post-EMP/GMD environment

Technical and economic feasibility of a microgrid for a fire station in Humboldt County, California.

Microgrids are emerging as a promising solution to unreliable grid energy. Today, California is not only witnessing grid resiliency challenges from natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, floods and heatwaves, but it is also seeking to green the grid and bring more renewables online. For example, Humboldt County, where this project is focused, has recently experienced an earthquake of 6.4M (on December 22nd, 2022), which shut down the regional grid for ~20 hours. Microgrid adoption enables critical facilities to operate seamlessly. The Humboldt Bay Fire Station (HBFS) No.1 is one such example, where first responders work to protect citizens against emergencies, be it emergency medical services (EMS) operations or fire rescue or even helping in restoration of power lines. This study involves a techno-economic analysis of a microgrid design that could support efficient and seamless operations for the fire station as it serves the people of Humboldt County during emergencies. A clean energy microgrid for the station aligns with the Humboldt County GHG emission target to reach net zero by 2030, and could provide resilient power to their general and critical loads during regular operations and emergencies. The recommended microgrid for the HBFS No. 1 facility includes a 70-kW photovoltaic (PV) array and a 90 kW/360 kWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The project cost ranges from $300k to$600k (depending upon the level of investment tax credits (ITC) the microgrid project would get). It provides 51-day resiliency in the best case and 28-hour resiliency in the worst case depending upon the weather condition. The system would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use at the station by over 98% annually. Considering the potential availability of incentives and the value of resiliency (VoR), the microgrid project for HBFS No.1 demonstrates promising economic feasibility results. The next steps involve further evaluation of the project\u27s financial viability, engaging with relevant stakeholders to secure funding, and proceeding with the detailed design and implementation phases of the microgrid

Concepts and Practices for Transforming Infrastructure from Rigid to Adaptable

abstract: Infrastructure are increasingly being recognized as too rigid to quickly adapt to a changing climate and a non-stationary future. This rigidness poses risks to and impacts on infrastructure service delivery and public welfare. Adaptivity in infrastructure is critical for managing uncertainties to continue providing services, yet little is known about how infrastructure can be made more agile and flexible towards improved adaptive capacity. A literature review identified approximately fifty examples of novel infrastructure and technologies which support adaptivity through one or more of ten theoretical competencies of adaptive infrastructure. From these examples emerged several infrastructure forms and possible strategies for adaptivity, including smart technologies, combined centralized/decentralized organizational structures, and renewable electricity generation. With institutional and cultural support, such novel structures and systems have the potential to transform infrastructure provision and management.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 201

Abstracts to Be Presented at the 2015 Supercomputing Conference

Compilation of Abstracts to be presented at the 2015 Supercomputing Conferenc

Reliability and sustainability of wood poles in the electrical power distribution network

Abstract: The reliability and sustainability of wood poles in the electrical power distribution network is of vital importance, as it directly affects the entire power system network connected to them. Wood poles support power line conductors and carry electrical equipment in order for electricity to be transmitted and distributed safely from the power company to consumers. One of the main challenges faced by electrical power distribution companies is the failure of wood poles on the distribution networks. Some of the identified problems when wood utility poles fail in the electrical power distribution network include loss of profit, unsafe households and damage of machinery. Looking at the South African electrical power distribution network from ten years back until now, it is evident that wood poles are crucial for the system and that the need for reliable and sustainable wood utility poles has grown tremendously in this period...M.Phil. (Engineering Management

Keynote: Robotic Non Destructive Testing

This keynote paper aims to highlight the application of mobile robots to perform inspection and non destructive testing (NDT) in industries such as aerospace, large scale fabrication, pipelines, petro-chemical storage and power generation. It describes industrial tasks where regular inspection is essential to ensure the integrity of infrastructure such as storage tanks, pressure vessels, pipelines, aircraft, ships, etc, and to provide managers of capital assets with data to plan outages and to make decisions on the life span of their infrastructure. The development of robot prototypes is described for these industrial tasks. These robots deploy NDT systems by first providing access to large vertical structures or to test sites that are inaccessible to humans. They are designed to reduce outage time, or where possible, carry out the NDT online thus preventing costly outages

THE ELECTROMAGNETIC THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT

This thesis analyzes the threat of both electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. EMP/GMD events are classified as low-probability/high-impact events that have potential catastrophic consequences to all levels of government as well as the civilian population of the United States. By reviewing current literature and conducting two thought experiments, this thesis determined that various critical infrastructure sectors and modern society are at risk of the effects of EMP/GMD events. Some of the most serious consequences of a large-scale EMP/GMD event include long-term power loss to large geographic regions, loss of modern medical services, and severe communication blackouts that could make recovery from these events extremely difficult. In an attempt to counteract and mitigate the risks of EMP/GMD events, resilience engineering concepts introduced several recommendations that could be utilized by policymakers to mitigate the effects of EMP or GMD events. Some of the recommendations include utilizing hardened micro-grid systems, black start options, and various changes to government agency organizations that would provide additional resilience and recovery to American critical infrastructure systems in a post-EMP/GMD environment.Captain, United States ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Impact Assessment, Detection, And Mitigation Of False Data Attacks In Electrical Power Systems

The global energy market has seen a massive increase in investment and capital flow in the last few decades. This has completely transformed the way power grids operate - legacy systems are now being replaced by advanced smart grid infrastructures that attest to better connectivity and increased reliability. One popular example is the extensive deployment of phasor measurement units, which is referred to PMUs, that constantly provide time-synchronized phasor measurements at a high resolution compared to conventional meters. This enables system operators to monitor in real-time the vast electrical network spanning thousands of miles. However, a targeted cyber attack on PMUs can prompt operators to take wrong actions that can eventually jeopardize the power system reliability. Such threats originating from the cyber-space continue to increase as power grids become more dependent on PMU communication networks. Additionally, these threats are becoming increasingly efficient in remaining undetected for longer periods while gaining deep access into the power networks. An attack on the energy sector immediately impacts national defense, emergency services, and all aspects of human life. Cyber attacks against the electric grid may soon become a tactic of high-intensity warfare between nations in near future and lead to social disorder. Within this context, this dissertation investigates the cyber security of PMUs that affects critical decision-making for a reliable operation of the power grid. In particular, this dissertation focuses on false data attacks, a key vulnerability in the PMU architecture, that inject, alter, block, or delete data in devices or in communication network channels. This dissertation addresses three important cyber security aspects - (1) impact assessment, (2) detection, and (3) mitigation of false data attacks. A comprehensive background of false data attack models targeting various steady-state control blocks is first presented. By investigating inter-dependencies between the cyber and the physical layers, this dissertation then identifies possible points of ingress and categorizes risk at different levels of threats. In particular, the likelihood of cyber attacks against the steady-state power system control block causing the worst-case impacts such as cascading failures is investigated. The case study results indicate that false data attacks do not often lead to widespread blackouts, but do result in subsequent line overloads and load shedding. The impacts are magnified when attacks are coordinated with physical failures of generators, transformers, or heavily loaded lines. Further, this dissertation develops a data-driven false data attack detection method that is independent of existing in-built security mechanisms in the state estimator. It is observed that a convolutional neural network classifier can quickly detect and isolate false measurements compared to other deep learning and traditional classifiers. Finally, this dissertation develops a recovery plan that minimizes the consequence of threats when sophisticated attacks remain undetected and have already caused multiple failures. Two new controlled islanding methods are developed that minimize the impact of attacks under the lack of, or partial information on the threats. The results indicate that the system operators can successfully contain the negative impacts of cyber attacks while creating stable and observable islands. Overall, this dissertation presents a comprehensive plan for fast and effective detection and mitigation of false data attacks, improving cyber security preparedness, and enabling continuity of operations